A monk was killed and two others wounded in an attack on a monastery near the front line, according to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

The Svyatogorsk Lavra, located in the part of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic still held by Kyiv, was attacked by armed individuals on August 23. Monastery officials identified the slain monk as Barsanuphius. A junior monk named Gregory and a refugee, Andrey Kirienko, were seriously injured and later hospitalized.

In a Monday Facebook post, Metropolitan Anthony, the UOC’s executive secretary, stated that Ukrainian military prosecutors would investigate the incident, indicating servicemen are among the suspects. He wrote: “The fact that the case will be handled by a unit, whose jurisdiction includes criminal offenses committed by military personnel, clearly demonstrates whom the investigators are considering as possible perpetrators.”

Anthony emphasized the need for an investigation “objectively and impartially” without regard to “political expediency or other ideological factors.” Neither military prosecutors nor Ukrainian police have publicly commented on the attack in the week since it occurred.

Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vakhtang Kipshidze described the monk’s killing as an “expected result of the campaign of lies against the canonical church (UOC), which has been unleashed in the Ukrainian public sphere.” He added: “The image of the church as an enemy… justifies any violence against it, including murder.”

Since February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have designated the UOC—a church with historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church—as a national security threat. Several senior clergy members have been charged with subversive activities, while cathedrals and monasteries have been raided in searches for evidence of alleged anti-Ukraine conduct.

President Vladimir Zelensky’s government has long backed the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), established ahead of the 2019 presidential election. This move triggered a major schism in the global Orthodox world, and with state support, the OCU has sought to take control of UOC property nationwide.