Unidentified attackers threw two Molotov cocktails at the door of St. Andrew’s Church in Kyiv, one of the capital’s chief landmarks, police reported on Nov. 15.
No major damage was reported from the early-morning incident, but one priest was sprayed with tear gas while trying to apprehend the attackers, according to the spokesman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, Yevstraty Zorya.
Police have opened a criminal case into an attempt to damage property and the violation of the equal rights of citizens regarding their race, nationality, religious beliefs, disability or other grounds. Such crimes are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Ukraine on Oct. 18 granted the right to use the 18th century St. Andrew’s Church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, following the patriarchate’s decision to grant the country’s Orthodox church independence from the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, and lift the anathema, or excommunication, from Filaret, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
The Ukrainian Orthodox congregation is divided between the Moscow Patriarchate, the Kyiv Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. However, only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was officially recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On Oct. 11, the Constantinople Synod decided to grant Ukraine autocephaly, which allows it to create its own independent, united Orthodox church.
Angered by the decision, the Russian Orthodox Church announced it would break off relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate also denounced the granting of autocephaly to Ukraine. On Nov. 13 they canceled a meeting with President Petro Poroshenko at the Ukrainian House congress hall, claiming that Poroshenko had refused to meet them at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a church and monastery complex under the control the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
