Ukraine Orthodox Church

Ukraine said Saturday it had filed criminal charges against Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in absentia for "justifying" Russia's invasion.

Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation that would ban the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), as Kyiv vows to cut ties with institutions it considers aligned with Russia.

The Russian missile strikes that killed at least one and injured many have destroyed a famous Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, reported CNN.

Ukrainian officials on Friday ordered a historically Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church to leave a monastery complex in Kyiv where it is based, the latest move against a denomination regarded with deep suspicion by the government.

"Sanctions have been imposed against 22 Russian citizens who, under the guise of spirituality, support terror and genocidal policy," President Zelensky said in his nightly address late on Monday.

Tears of joy streamed down worshippers' faces as Ukraine's main church celebrated a "return" to Kyiv's Cathedral of the Assumption on Orthodox Christmas day, shortly after taking control of it from a rival church with alleged ties to Russia.

Ukraine's top security officials have ordered punitive measures against seven senior clerics, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, part of a crackdown on a branch of the Orthodox Church with longstanding ties to Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian artillery hit an early 17th century Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in war-torn eastern Ukraine on Saturday, engulfing its main church in flames.

Russian troops were approaching the strategic city of Severodonetsk on Friday in a relentless offensive to control Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, as the war triggered a historic schism in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's Moscow branch.

As war rages across Ukraine, Mykhaylo Tereshchenko, the priest of Moscow branch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church is locked in his own spiritual battle that risks tearing his parish apart.

The European Commission has proposed sanctioning the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in the latest wave of economic measures against Russia.

Kirill said in Sunday sermon that countries which do not accept western values are not considered part of the world.

The death of a baby crushed by a drunk man who committed suicide by jumping out of an eighth-floor apartment in Ukraine has exposed the religious divide in the Orthodox Christian country.

President Vladimir Putin took a break from his official duties to slip into a Russian Orthodox Church this week and light a candle for fighters killed in eastern Ukraine.

The head of Ukraine's Orthodox Church yesterday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being possessed by Satan -- a comment certain to outrage tens of millions of faithful in both countries.

Ukraine said Saturday it had filed criminal charges against Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, in absentia for "justifying" Russia's invasion.

Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation that would ban the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), as Kyiv vows to cut ties with institutions it considers aligned with Russia.

The Russian missile strikes that killed at least one and injured many have destroyed a famous Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, reported CNN.

Ukrainian officials on Friday ordered a historically Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church to leave a monastery complex in Kyiv where it is based, the latest move against a denomination regarded with deep suspicion by the government.

"Sanctions have been imposed against 22 Russian citizens who, under the guise of spirituality, support terror and genocidal policy," President Zelensky said in his nightly address late on Monday.

Tears of joy streamed down worshippers' faces as Ukraine's main church celebrated a "return" to Kyiv's Cathedral of the Assumption on Orthodox Christmas day, shortly after taking control of it from a rival church with alleged ties to Russia.

Ukraine's top security officials have ordered punitive measures against seven senior clerics, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, part of a crackdown on a branch of the Orthodox Church with longstanding ties to Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian artillery hit an early 17th century Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in war-torn eastern Ukraine on Saturday, engulfing its main church in flames.

Russian troops were approaching the strategic city of Severodonetsk on Friday in a relentless offensive to control Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, as the war triggered a historic schism in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's Moscow branch.

As war rages across Ukraine, Mykhaylo Tereshchenko, the priest of Moscow branch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church is locked in his own spiritual battle that risks tearing his parish apart.

The European Commission has proposed sanctioning the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in the latest wave of economic measures against Russia.

Kirill said in Sunday sermon that countries which do not accept western values are not considered part of the world.

The death of a baby crushed by a drunk man who committed suicide by jumping out of an eighth-floor apartment in Ukraine has exposed the religious divide in the Orthodox Christian country.

President Vladimir Putin took a break from his official duties to slip into a Russian Orthodox Church this week and light a candle for fighters killed in eastern Ukraine.

The head of Ukraine's Orthodox Church yesterday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being possessed by Satan -- a comment certain to outrage tens of millions of faithful in both countries.