Ukraine raids holy site amid suspicion of Orthodox Church tied to Moscow

KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian security services on Tuesday raided one of the holiest sites for Orthodox Christians, saying they were scouring a 1,000-year-old monastery in the heart of Kyiv for Russian saboteurs among the clerics and weapons amid the relics, even as pilgrims prayed in the caves below.

The hunt for Russian spies at the sprawling Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, or Monastery of the Caves, was a vivid demonstration of the depth of mistrust in Ukraine toward a branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church that until this year followed leaders in Moscow, and has been suspected by many Ukrainians of being a Kremlin-aligned fifth column. Millions of Ukrainians belong to another branch independent of Moscow.

As of last month, officials have said, 33 priests had been arrested for assisting Russia since it invaded in February, most of them charged with gathering intelligence and feeding it to Moscow’s forces.

It was unclear if any arrests were made or illegal activity discovered Tuesday, but the security services warned that churches made a perfect hiding place for those looking to tear Ukraine apart from within.

The Kremlin condemned the raid, calling it evidence that Kyiv is “at war with the Russian Orthodox Church.” Vladimir Legoyda, the spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, called the move “an act of intimidation” against the only remaining institution “where people both in Russia and Ukraine sincerely pray for peace.”

The raid came as the Russian military hammered cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine with heavy artillery fire while it attempts to regroup from recent losses of territory and troops.

Ukrainian officials said eight people were killed in Tuesday’s strikes. In the town of Orikhiv, a shell struck an aid station at a school Tuesday, killing a social worker and wounding two women, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said.

Also on Tuesday, officials in Crimea, the peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, said that Ukraine had mounted a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol, headquarters of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet, but it was not clear if any serious damage occurred.

Ukraine has also set its sights on recapturing the Kinburn Spit, a strategically vital peninsula at the mouth of the Dnieper River where it meets the Black Sea. If Ukraine were to take Kinburn, it would put key Russian supply lines running north out of Crimea in easy range of Ukrainian weapon systems.