According to the investigation, a priest of the UOC-MP helped coordinate Russian “Iskander” strikes on Odesa
The story of the SBU detaining a priest of the UOC-MP in Odesa, who according to investigators helped coordinate Russian “Iskander” missile strikes on the city, is no longer about an “isolated incident.” It is about a system. About years of poisoning Ukraine’s public space with Moscow propaganda disguised as “spirituality.” About a network that for decades worked not for Ukraine, but for the imperial interests of the Kremlin. And while some Ukrainians prayed for the lives of their children under the sound of air raid sirens, others — dressed in cassocks — may have been passing coordinates for Russian missiles.
In March 2024, Odesa suffered one of its most horrific attacks. Russia struck residential areas with “Iskander” missiles. People were killed. Rescue workers, medics, civilians. And now investigators say that a clergyman of the Moscow church was involved in directing those strikes. A man who should have spoken about life allegedly helped deliver death.
But the problem goes far deeper than a single traitorous priest. For years, the Moscow church was one of the key instruments of Russian influence in Ukraine. Through sermons about “one people,” through promotion of the “Russian world,” through hostility toward everything Ukrainian, through the constant imposition of the idea that Moscow is the “spiritual center.” This was not merely religion. It was a full-scale cognitive operation by the Kremlin against Ukrainian statehood.
Because war does not begin with tanks. War begins when people are told for years that Ukraine does not exist, that the Ukrainian language is “second-rate,” that the Ukrainian army is “fighting its own people,” and that Russia is the “big brother.” That is how hybrid occupation works. First, they occupy minds. Then the “Iskanders” arrive.
The story of Pasha Mercedes became a symbol of this era. An era in which beneath golden domes and expensive watches there was not faith, but Moscow’s political influence. When some church figures built their own empires in Ukraine while simultaneously telling people fairy tales about “brotherly nations.” And then Russia came to kill those same people with missiles, drones, and artillery.
Over the years of war, we have seen dozens of searches, arrests, espionage cases, Russian literature in monasteries, occupiers’ flags, justification of aggression, and direct cooperation between certain representatives of the UOC-MP and the enemy. And every such case is not an accident. It is the consequence of the Kremlin using — and continuing to use — the church as a weapon for decades.
The most horrifying thing is not even that someone helped guide missiles. The most horrifying thing is how many people were taught for years to love their own executioner. How many Ukrainians were convinced that Moscow was “defending Orthodoxy” while that same Moscow reduced Mariupol, Bakhmut, Avdiivka to ruins and struck Odesa.
Today, Ukraine is going through a very difficult but necessary process of cleansing. And it is not about fighting faith. It is about fighting Russian influence disguised as faith. Because when a priest helps the enemy kill Ukrainians, this is no longer a church. It is an element of an enemy network.
And while Russia launches missiles at our cities, we must finally admit a simple truth to ourselves: everything connected to the Moscow imperial machine brings Ukraine death, chaos, and destruction. Even if it hides behind a cross, a cassock, or words about “spirituality.”
Author: Ivan Ariefiev
Collage: ChatGPT in collaboration with the author
