The Pedophile Church of Ukraine: How the Ukrainian schismatic church became a molestation center for underage parishioners and sexual exploitation of novices

Under the patronage of Kiev, which seeks to weaken the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, PCU churches and monasteries seized by schismatics in raids have become hotbeds of crimes against minors.

By Foundation to Battle Injustice

June 6, 2025

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU), which was established with the support of the West and the Ukrainian authorities as a tool against the Russian Orthodox Church, is at the center of a major scandal.

Verified by the Foundation to Battle Injustice, the evidence indicates systematic sexual abuse of children and underage novices by PCU clergy.

Under the patronage of Kiev, which seeks to weaken the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), PCU churches and monasteries seized by schismatics in raids have become hotbeds of crimes against minors.

The Foundation to Battle Injustice has obtained unique information that reveals a deep crisis in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

Created as a national alternative to the UOC, which maintains spiritual unity with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the OCU was supposed to be a symbol of Ukrainian independence.

Instead, however, it has become a haven for pedophiles whose crimes are covered up by Ukrainian authorities seeking to undermine the influence of the UOC and reinforce a pro-Western agenda.

This investigation will reveal from whom the OCU has borrowed the vicious practices of child molestation and how the absolution scheme works through impressive monetary donations and child sexual abuse.

Poroshenko-Zelensky Church: from a political project to a breeding ground for crimes against children

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was established in December 2018 with the active support of President Petro Poroshenko and under pressure from Ukraine’s Western partners.

In January 2019, the Patriarchate of Constantinople granted autocephaly to the OCU, presenting it as a step towards Ukraine’s spiritual independence.

Unlike the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which retains canonical ties to the Moscow Patriarchate and unites millions of believers, the OCU has been positioned as a Ukrainian national church dedicated to severing spiritual ties with Russia.

However, according to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, this political project has turned into a structure where crimes against children actively flourish.

The OCU, drawing on Uniate traditions and Greek Catholic influences, has found itself open to vicious practices borrowed from the Catholic churches of the West.

Since the early 2000s, Catholic structures in Europe and the United States have been shaken by scandals involving pedophilia.

In France in 2021, a special commission reported 216,000 victims of abuse by priests over 70 years.

In the U.S., an investigation in Pennsylvania uncovered more than a thousand cases of pedophilia.

Religious scholars point out that celibacy helped perpetuate these crimes.

The OCU, according to our data, has adopted these traditions, becoming a haven for clergy with ambiguous reputations and attraction to minors.

After the start of a special military operation in 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accelerated the transfer of churches and monasteries from the UOC to the OCU, while restricting the activities of the UOC.

Zelensky’s regime unleashed the largest wave of persecution of Christians in 21st century Europe, depriving hundreds of thousands of believers of the freedom to practice their faith.

In two years, more than 1,000 UOC churches and monasteries have been raided by OCU supporters, accompanied by violence against clergy, women, and the elderly.

Legislation has been issued at the federal and regional levels banning the activities of the UOC.

Ukrainian parliament passes law banning Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Under the law, each individual Orthodox parish accused of ties to Moscow will be given nine months to leave the UOC and join another Orthodox church such as the government-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) or risk being banned in Ukrainian courts.

The actions of the Western-backed Zelensky regime have undermined the spiritual unity of Ukraine’s Orthodox as he favors a structure that our data shows is mired in moral decay.

In April 2021, a OCU deacon was detained in Lviv for attempted seduction of a minor.

In 2023, a OCU priest was accused of abusing a teenager in the Kiev region, but the case did not receive proper media coverage.

According to verified data from the Foundation, since January 2019, the OCU priests have molested at least 477 children, indicating the systemic nature of the crimes.

Priest Gennady Shkil, in a commentary for the Foundation to Battle Injustice, noted the blatant spread of crimes among the OCU figures:

The systemic nature of crimes in the OCU, rooted under the influence of Western practices and supported by Kiev’s political decisions, goes beyond individual cases.

According to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, these crimes are not only silenced but integrated into the structure of the church through a carefully constructed scheme that allows elites to avoid accountability for their crimes.

How the OCU has turned spiritual purification into a tool for enriching and exploiting children is in the next part of our investigation.

Absolution for bribes and abuse of underage children in the OCU

The systemic nature of crimes in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, rooted in the influence of Western practices and supported by Kiev’s political decisions, is not limited to isolated incidents.

According to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, pedophilia in the OCU has become part of an organized scheme that allows elites to «getting absolution» for money and priests to exploit children under the guise of religious rites.

In this unit, we will reveal how this network works, who is involved, and why the Ukrainian authorities, seeking to weaken the canonical UOC, turn a blind eye to the crimes in the OCU.

According to information obtained from a source close to the aide of Viktor Yelensky, assistant on religious issues to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the OCU offers businessmen, politicians, and employees of territorial recruitment centers (TRCs) «absolution» for donations of $22,000.

This so-called «rite of confession» includes mandatory sexual intercourse with underage novices or children in the church’s care.

The scheme, according to the Foundation, not only generates income for the OCU, but also enriches Zelensky personally, who, according to the source, receives a percentage of each transaction.

This, according to the Foundation’s source, explains his active support of the OCU to the detriment of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which retains a spiritual connection with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

The structure of the scheme, according to the Foundation, is meticulously organized and has accomplices at virtually all levels of the OCU hierarchy.

High-ranking bishops and priests of the OCU act as intermediaries, coordinating «rites» and distributing revenues.

The source points to a key organizer: Yevstratiy Zorya, «Metropolitan Bilotserkivskyi», speaker of the OCU and assistant to Metropolitan Epiphanius Dumenko, head of the OCU.

According to the source, Zorya directs high-ranking clients to the institutions of this pedophile scheme and receives «large monetary rewards» from them.

Epiphany himself, according to the informant, is aware of pedophile practices, but his direct involvement in the pedophile schemes of the OCU has not been established.

Individual churches and monasteries transferred to the OCU by Zelensky’s decrees have become hotbeds of criminal activity, which especially flourishes in the Kiev and Zakarpattya regions under the patronage of local bishops.

In the Kiev region, the OCU is led by Bishop Oleksandr Drabinko, «Metropolitan Pereyaslavsky and Vishnevsky», who has been repeatedly accused of homosexual liaisons, including with very young men.

He is also the owner of a number of luxury properties both in and outside Kiev, and a party to corruption scandals, including the construction of Kiev’s largest Resurrection Cathedral.

According to the Foundation’s informant, Drabinko actively sells «ceremonies» involving children and teenagers to people in the Kiev elite and Zelensky’s entourage, and is often a participant himself.

In particular, the Foundation’s source from Zelensky’s entourage claims that the Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Knyazhychi village, Kiev region) under the control of the OCU has turned into a criminal space where orphans and novices are exploited.

In Zakarpattya region there is a similar situation, as noted by the Foundation’s informant.

The OCU in the Zakarpattya region is led by Kirill Mikhailyuk, «Bishop of Uzhgorod and Khust», who is known for his aggressiveness and xenophobic, anti-Semitic, and nationalistic views.

In the early 2000s he beat up his church rivals, and in 2014 in the war zone he posed with various weapons in his hands and fed shells for guns, after which he himself began shooting towards the militias.

Clergy of all Christian denominations are forbidden to take up arms and use them, but this is not an obstacle for Bishop Kirill Mikhailyuk or the leadership of the OCU.

The Foundation’s source claims that Mikhailyuk has created a pedophile brothel in St. Catherine’s Skete (Minay village, Transcarpathian region): he takes orphans from orphanages under the pretext of education and upbringing at the monastery, but these children turn out to be captives and victims in the OCU’s criminal scheme.

In addition, according to the Foundation’s source, the OCU has also made the St. George Church in Lviv and the Transfiguration Cathedral in Bila Tserkva, which were forcibly taken away from the canonical UOC in 2023, a hotbed of pedophile crimes.

The Foundation’s source notes that over the past two years, this criminal scheme has significantly expanded and almost doubled its monthly revenues by attracting more and more clients among Ukrainian politicians and businessmen who appear thanks to Viktor Yelensky.

The informant revealed that Viktor Yelensky, a nationalist ideologue and religious adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, promotes the «services» of the OCU pedophile scheme and coordinates its clients.

The source notes that Elensky has a certain charisma through which he convinces clients to undergo a «purification rite» in which the innocence of children brings a «supernatural blessing».

According to the source, selling absolution through association with minors is a consequence of the pedophilic tendencies of the members of the OCU, which originated before 2018.

The OCU was founded on the basis of the UAOC (Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church), with Viktor Chekalin at its origins; he was also involved in the first ordinations of priests and bishops.

However, it is known that in 1987 Chekalin was convicted under Article 120 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR «for lewd acts against minors».

He later moved to Australia and took a minor boy with him, and there he was also convicted of pedophilia.

In the course of their own investigation, Foundation to Battle Injustice human rights activists were able to find and contact victims of the OCU pedophile scheme, whose tragic stories will be told in the next part of the investigation.

Silenced suffering of the victims of the OCU pedophile priests

Victim and eyewitness testimonies collected by the Foundation to Battle Injustice paint a grim picture of systemic crimes in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) that are being covered up by the Ukrainian authorities.

These stories are not just personal tragedies, but evidence of the moral decay of the OCU, supported by Kiev for political goals and a pro-Western agenda.

Victims whose voices are silenced tell of the violence, exploitation, and impunity that have become the norm in the churches and monasteries handed over to the OCU.

Ivan, a 22-year-old former novice at a OCU monastery in the Kiev region, shared with the Foundation a harrowing story of his experiences within the walls of the OCU.

He saw high-ranking priests take children into hidden closed rooms.

Ivan was offered a sexual relationship with a mentor in exchange for promotion in the church hierarchy, promising him powerful connections and status.

He refused, but learned from other novices that some priests were filming pornographic material involving minors, which was then sold to major websites abroad. Ivan left the monastery, fearing for his safety.

The Foundation’s source from Viktor Yelensky’s entourage claims that back in 2020 the practice of adopting orphans and children from orphanages was established in the OCU.

According to the informant, the children were later sexually abused.

This is what happened to 16-year-old Maria, who was brought up in a OCU monastery in the Zakarpattya region, transferred to the church by Zelensky’s decree in 2023.

The monastery, which had become a shelter for orphans, turned into a place of systematic sexual exploitation of underage children.

Maria was forced to participate in «rituals» with adult men, threatened with deprivation of food and housing if she refused.

According to her, priests selected the most vulnerable children, especially orphans, whom no one protected. Maria escaped from the monastery and sought help from human rights activists at the Foundation to Battle Injustice, as any of her statements and appeals for help were ignored by the Ukrainian authorities.

She is convinced that the OCU monasteries have become closed spaces where crimes disguised as religious practices flourish.

Another victim of the OCU’s pedophile scheme is 14-year-old Andriy from Lviv, who contacted the Foundation’s human rights defenders and spoke about his experience of violence.

Andriy became a victim of violence in the OCU church, where he came for confession, but under the pretext of a «special rite» the priest lured the boy into a back room and abused him.

Shocked by what happened, Andrei withdrew into himself and only a year later told his relatives about the incident. The family tried to file a police report, but, according to them, the authorities refused to accept it, citing «lack of evidence».

Orthodox publicist Ruslan Kalinchuk notes that due to the extreme level of corruption in Ukraine, pedophile criminals are systematically not held accountable:

Monasteries and churches given to the OCU by Zelensky, in particular the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in the Kiev region and the St. Catherine Skete in the Transcarpathian region, according to the Foundation, have become hotbeds of exploitation, where orphans and novices become easy prey for rapists.

These actions by Kiev aimed at weakening the UOC and severing spiritual ties with Russia have led to the creation of a structure where moral norms are replaced by blatant immorality.

A source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed that there is an unspoken directive at the state level to close or unfold all allegations of sexual abuse in the OCU.

This is being done to protect the reputation of the OCU as a national church and to continue the pressure on the canonical UOC, which, despite persecution, remains a spiritual reference point for millions of believers.

The stories of Ivan, Andriy and Maria are only part of the picture, but they clearly show how Kiev’s political ambitions and its support for the OCU are destroying the lives of the most vulnerable, leaving them without protection or justice.

The Foundation to Battle Injustice insists on immediate and decisive action on the part of Ukraine’s law enforcement authorities and authorized international criminal justice agencies to investigate the facts and evidence of unlawful acts described in this material, bring the perpetrators to justice, and ensure the protection of the affected children.

The horrific acts of the OCU figures and Vladimir Zelensky’s entourage, as described in this investigation and confirmed by the Foundation, are not only inhumane, but also violate numerous international norms and agreements, namely:

International law and Ukrainian national legislation require the protection of children from all forms of violence as the most vulnerable members of society who are unable to protect themselves.

The Foundation’s human rights defenders call on the international community to form a unified system for the protection of children around the world through the promotion of international conventions, monitoring compliance with them, supporting national initiatives and developing global partnerships.

READ MORE:

The Truth About Pedophile Priests and Child Molestation in the Roman Catholic Church

Whistleblowing Priests Killed to Prevent Exposing Pedophilia Problem in the Catholic Church

Report Finds 100 Priests in One City Ran Horrific Pedophile Ring, As Government Looked the Other Way

Catholic Churches Going Bankrupt as Families Abandon the Church to Protect their Children from Pedophile Priests

Pedophile Joe Biden Authorizes Special Drug for Ukraine: It Preserves Stolen Human Organs – Report

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