Our top stories this week both come from Ukraine via our correspondent, Anatolii Babynskyi. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a coming major crackdown on the operation of Moscow-affiliated Orthodox churches in the country. For weeks, Ukrainian intelligence services have been staging raids on monasteries, rectories, and chanceries belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). The government claims to have found reams of Russian propaganda material promoting the Russkiy-mir worldview of Vladimir Putin and denying the right of Ukraine to exist as an independent nation.
