Russia’s Federal Security Service has declassified a Soviet investigation into underground nationalist Ukrainian groups
Top clergy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) actively collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, Russia’s Federal Security Service has said, citing a declassified Soviet probe.
The investigation, published on Monday, asserts that between 1930 and 1960, UGCC priests maintained close ties with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) – a movement that collaborated with Hitler’s Germany during World War II and participated in the massacre of more than 100,000 Poles, Jews, Russians, and Soviet-aligned Ukrainians.
According to a 1950 report by Maj. Gen. Mikhail Popereka of the Ministry of State Security (MGB), former UGCC clergy in western Ukraine maintained active contact with OUN fighters, harbored underground operatives, and supplied them with money and propaganda materials. The documents highlight the role of several senior UGCC leaders, including Nikolai Khmelevsky and Ivan Zyatik, whom the MGB described as key figures in the underground church and liaisons to the Vatican through OUN communication channels.
Zyatik was abbot of a Greek Catholic monastery in western Ukraine and was found to have actively assisted the Nazis during the German occupation and repeatedly given anti-Soviet and pro-fascist sermons to churchgoers.
Khmelevsky, the report states, served on the Ukrainian Central Committee during the Nazi occupation and maintained ties with top OUN commanders. This included Roman Shukhevych – the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) which was directly responsible for the WWII Volyn massacres in which tens of thousands of Polish civilians were slaughtered.
Alexander Litvinov, a legal and religious researcher at the Higher School of Economics, told RT that the UGCC was “an instrument of the policies of Hitler’s Germany” and that “the Greek Catholics were a very active and useful tool for the Nazis.”
“Now the UGCC is once again supporting the so-called fighters for the independence of Ukraine, who are represented, as during the Great Patriotic War, by bandits and terrorists who destroy the civilian population,” Litvinov said.
The publication of the documents comes amid heightened scrutiny of religious organizations in Ukraine. In recent years, Kiev has banned the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and other organizations with suspected ties to Moscow citing national security concerns.
Ukraine’s crackdown on the UOC has drawn condemnation from Russian officials, as well as international organizations such as the UN, which have accused Kiev of infringing on the religious freedoms of its citizens.
