Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 14/04/2023
After the dispute over jurisdiction in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, some media outlets published fake news that the crosses on this monastery complex turned dark right after the service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is not recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate.
On March 16, 2023, web portal Sputnik published an article claiming that the crosses on the church in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex turned black after the services of the Orthodox Church, which is not recognized by the Moscow Patriarchate.
Crosses turned black in the church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra after the service of schismatics from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church /video/
The crosses on the Trapezna church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra turned black after the service of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, said the administrator of the Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel, in an address to the Kyiv authorities.
“Look at what happened to the crosses on the Trapezna church. “The crosses were yellow, until the theft of the church’s sanctity”, said the metropolitan.
It is also stated that at the beginning of January “Ukrainian authorities took away the Trapezna church from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as the Dormition church, the main temple of the Lavra”.
Sputnik’s article featured a video from the Telegram channel of the Russian state agency RIA Novosti, which shows blackened crosses.
Photo: Screenshot Sputnik
Sputnik’s article was shared by Pravda, Vaseljenska, Srbinaokup, Srpska Pravoslavna crkva Eparhija zvorničko-tuzlanska, ASinfo and Red portal.
The same claims were published in the Oko nas article on March 15, 2023, and in a video published on March 14, 2023, on the YouTube channel Pravoslavlje 888.
What are the facts?
The claim that the crosses on the Kyiv church turned black after the service of the priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was first published in an article by the Russian state news agency RIA. The video footage of the Trapezna church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in the Sputnik article was taken from the Telegram channel of this Russian news agency, where it was published on March 16, 2023. The video shows the blackened crosses of the Trapezna church of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, one of the oldest and most important monasteries from the middle of the 11th century in Kyiv.
The monastery is owned by the Ukrainian government, according to an article by Radio Free Europe (RFE) from March 2023. The Church in Ukraine, as stated in the same RFE article, split in 2018 into two factions with almost identical names – the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) until the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but severed relations with Moscow due to the invasion. However, authorities in Kyiv suspect that branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have remained in close relations with Russia, according to another RSE article from March 2023.
In January 2023, the Ukrainian government decided to return the Kyiv monastery under the authority of the state by cancelling the lease to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), it was stated in another article of Radio Free Europe from March 2023.
In an article published on April 4, 2023, the fact-checking web portal Istinomer wrote about the claims that the crosses at the Trapezna church of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra have darkened. Two days after it was announced that the churches of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra were being returned to state ownership, the Metropolitan of Kyiv and a representative of the OCU celebrated the Christmas service in the Dormition church, according to Istinomer.
At the time, a large number of Russian media presented this move as the forcible seizure of the Trapezna and Dormition churches from the canonical OCU by the Ukrainian authorities, who then “allowed the services of the schismatic OCU”.” It is precisely with this event that Metropolitan Pavel associates the alleged sudden change in the colour of the crosses above the domes of the temple.
But the crosses did not change colour suddenly after the OCU service. The coat on them was damaged over the years, which can be seen on numerous archival recordings of the Trapezna church, according to Istinomer.
In the footage from 2019 and 2021, taken with a drone, the crosses above the Trapezna church have a darker colour. The same can be concluded in photos from 2017, but also from almost two decades ago, from 2006.
Screenshot: Flickr
Screenshot: YouTube
The crosses darkened due to oxidation of the coat, a natural chemical reaction, and this did not happen recently, but years ago.
Since the crosses on the churches of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra did not suddenly darken after the service of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, we assess this claim in the video clip on the YouTube channel Pravoslavlje 888 as fake news. We assess all transmissions as the distribution of fake news.