The Kremlin claimed today that Ukraine is “illegally attacking” the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OO), which until recently recognized the authority of the Moscow patriarch, and added that this confirms the necessity for Russia’s “special military operation”.

Last week Ukrainian officials called on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to leave the monastery complex of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (known as the Monastery of the Caves) where it is based, prompting a sharp reaction from Moscow.

“With these illegal attacks on the church, the Kiev regime is once again demonstrating its character, the very character that we are fighting, the very character that we must stop through the (military) operation that is being carried out,” the spokesman said of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, to journalists.

Russia maintains that one of the reasons it sent troops into Ukraine more than a year ago was to defend Russian speakers and Russian culture from persecution.

Kiev and its Western allies reject this claim as an unfounded justification for an aggressive war.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian leaders have accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of undermining Ukrainian unity and collaborating with Moscow.

Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion in Ukraine, and the Moscow-aligned church competes for believers with the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was established after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Last Friday, authorities asked the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to vacate its base, the 980-year-old Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, by March 29, prompting Orthodox Patriarch Kirill to ask Pope Francis and other religious leaders for help.

Since October, the Security Service of Ukraine has been carrying out searches of OOE churches, has imposed sanctions on its bishops and financiers, and opened criminal cases against dozens of its clergy.

The OIC acknowledged the authority of the Moscow patriarch until the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but says it has now cut ties with Russia and is the victim of a political witch hunt.