Ukraine authorities arrest religious leader who cursed President Zelenskyy

Ukraine authorities Saturday arrested Ukraine Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Metropolitan Pavel for “justifying Russian aggression” after the religious leader cursed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier last week.

Zelenskyy in December signed a decree banning the activities of religious organizations with ties or sympathies to Russia. The UOC, which has historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, fell under Zelenskyy’s suspicion, despite the fact that the organization declared its independence from Moscow in May due to Russia’s invasion.

Pavel, who denies the charges that he has justified Russian aggression, is the abbott of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Ukraine’s most sacred Orthodox site. The priest said he has “never been on the side of aggression”. And while he did curse Zelenskyy early last week and threatened him with damnation, his supporters say it has nothing to do with loyalties to Russia.

“Look at me. I’m in priest’s clothes, with a Ukrainian flag and a cross around my neck. Could you say that I’m pro-Russian?” a UOC supporter named David told the Associated Press. “The priests are currently singing a Ukrainian hymn, and they’re being called pro-Russian. Can you believe it?”

Pavel will remain under house arrest for two months and has been fitted with a monitoring bracelet around his ankle.

In November, Ukraine’s security forces raided 350 churches and interrogated 50 people after a priest spoke favorably about Russia. Ukraine’s security agency SBU said it found “pro-Russian literature, which is used during studies in seminaries and parish schools, including for propaganda of the ‘Russian world'.”

A Ukraine official confirmed in February that the country pulled from its libraries 19 million books that were either in Russian or were written in the Soviet era as of November 2022. Eleven million of those books are in Russian.

Ukrainian parliament’s Humanitarian and Information Policy Committee Deputy Chair Yevheniya Kravchuk said that some books in Ukrainian from the Soviet era have been withdrawn as well, and the government is also now considering banning books by writers who did not support Ukraine in the war.

"Some Ukrainian-language books from the Soviet era are also written off," Kravchuk wrote on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.

"There are also recommendations to write off and remove books whose authors supported armed aggression against Ukraine."

It is unclear what was done with the books that were withdrawn.

The move came after Ukraine decided in mid-2022 to halt the distribution of Russian books after Russia’s invasion. Books by Russian authors may only be printed if the writers denounce their Russian citizenship and become citizens of Ukraine. Russian literature, such as that written by Alexander Pushkin or Leo Tolstoy, may enter Ukraine if they were printed in a country other than Russia or Belarus.

But still, not all such literature is permitted. Last year, Ukraine First Deputy Education Minister Andrey Vitrenko announced that Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” will no longer be studied in schools because it depicts the Russian military in a positive light.

It is also forbidden to play Russian music in public, on television and on the radio.

Ukraine’s purge of Russian culture comes despite the country’s citizens having strong ties and roots to the culture.

Censorship has been a major part of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s response to the Russian invasion. In March 2022, a month after the war began, the actor-turned-president signed a decree to nationalize the media by consolidating all TV networks into one state-run outlet so that there will be a “unified information policy". 

At the same time, Zelenskyy banned 11 opposition parties in Ukraine’s Parliament which he accused of Russia collusion. 

“The activities of those politicians aimed at division or collusion will not succeed, but will receive a harsh response,” said the embattled president in a video address. 

“Therefore, the National Security and Defense Council decided, given the full-scale war unleashed by Russia, and the political ties that a number of political structures have with this state, to suspend any activity of a number of political parties for the period of martial law.”