{"id":1342061,"date":"2026-01-08T17:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T15:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/russian-church-sect-in-kyiv-have-ukrainians-passed-the-maturity-test\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T05:24:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:24:49","slug":"russian-church-sect-in-kyiv-have-ukrainians-passed-the-maturity-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/russian-church-sect-in-kyiv-have-ukrainians-passed-the-maturity-test\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sect, a Capital, and a Question: Has Ukraine Grown Up Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

A vivid expos\u00e9 of a Russian church school. A rigorous journalistic investigation. A wave of public outrage \u2014 justified and necessary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look. Yes, during the war, 60 children \u2014 meaning 60 pairs of parents \u2014 were studying in a Soviet-style school operating under the cover of the Moscow Church. That is a fact.<\/p>\n

But we are talking about Kyiv, a city of four million people. In reality, this comes down to about 120 parents \u2014 no more. I assume there were no same-sex parent couples there, by the way, which some people consider far more \u201cdangerous\u201d to children. Add a few eccentric grandparents, and let\u2019s say we are talking about 150 people in total.<\/p>\n

In other words, this is a tiny sect by Kyiv\u2019s standards. In a city of four million, Kyiv has seen far larger sects than this. What we are witnessing here is that Russian structures managed to gather around 150 marginal individuals under one roof \u2014 and that was their ceiling.<\/p>\n

This is, although roughly 20 percent of Kyiv\u2019s population today consists of people who relocated from eastern regions because of the war and who, objectively, are more inclined toward Soviet patterns of thinking. These are precisely the groups that sects affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate traditionally target.<\/p>\n

Yes, there is also an unpleasant story involving schools that helped cover this up. But no sect operates without someone covering for it. That part of the story is less about ideology and more about corruption. There is no doubt that Russian structures do not spare money for such operations.<\/p>\n

So on one side, we are dealing with a pro-Russian sect operating during wartime. On the other hand, we see that today the Moscow Patriarchate \u2014 with all its financial resources and influence \u2014 is capable of organizing only a small group of about 150 people, which is already perceived in Ukraine as something almost absurd.<\/p>\n

Would such a reaction have been possible five years ago? Ten years ago? Twenty years ago?<\/p>\n

That is the real question.<\/p>\n\t\t