Ukraine-Russia conflict doesn’t stop at the church door

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• HARI SREENIVASAN:

  We turn again now to a country which has dominated headlines for much of the last year, Ukraine.

  While much has been reported about the overthrow of its former leader, new government, annexation of Crimea, the Russian incursions into the country, tonight, special correspondent Kira Kay brings us a story on the less-known battle that's happening in the former Soviet republic over religion.

  The story was produced in partnership with the Bureau for International Reporting.

• KIRA KAY:

  In the Western Ukrainian village of Butyn sits a picturesque blue church. It has survived two World Wars and the communist and atheist Soviet Union.

  Now, in 2014, with its nation gripped in war, Saint Nicholas has become another battlefront in the conflict, one of beliefs and even political influence. It used to belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the country's largest denomination, with a direct link to Russia's own politically influential Orthodox Church.

  But villagers in Butyn say it all began to unravel when their priest refused to pray for the protesters, who were calling for the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in Kiev's city center a year ago.

• SVETLANA EVGENIEVNA, Ukraine (through interpreter):

  That was my child there. They were students and children of other parents that were residents of our village. That was the last straw.

• KIRA KAY:

  Svetlana Evgenievna and her neighbors felt they had to remove their priest.

• SVETLANA EVGENIEVNA (through interpreter):

  There was a gathering of the village. There were shouts and quarrels, and we weren't sure what to do. One man proposed a referendum, how many for and how many against?

• KIRA KAY:

  Villagers voted to switch allegiance to the smaller, unofficial, but overtly pro-Ukrainian church called the Kyiv Patriarchate. In October, a new priest arrived and pro-Kyiv parishioners, backed by ultra-nationalist activists, took over the grounds.

  And the village of Butyn isn't alone. More than 30 other Ukrainian communities have removed priests belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate. The process has sometimes been chaotic, even violent. In Butyn, Moscow Patriarchate loyalists, like Tamara Kaznovetska and Olga Tsimbaluk, were locked out.

• TAMARA KAZNOVETSKA, Ukraine (through interpreter):

  Someone told me: "You are a bandit. You are a separatist. You pray in the language of the aggressor. I was just going to church. I pray to God. I don't pray to Putin."

  We are not against Ukraine. We are simply Christians who cannot leave our 1,000-year-old faith.

• KIRA KAY:

  The Kyiv Patriarchate was started in 1992 by a breakaway priest named Filaret, who felt Ukrainians deserved a church separate from Russia. Last year, it grabbed the political moment and not only joined protesters, but protected them.

  Eighteen-year-old protester Irina Kocubinskaya was hurt in an attack by riot police and found refuge with others at a monastery run by the church.

• IRINA KOCUBINSKAYA, Ukraine (through interpreter):

  The church played not just an actual, but also a symbolic role. People remarked we were hiding here, just like they did from barbarians 1,000 years ago. That the priests here opened the doors, I think, is important, because the Moscow Patriarchate would hardly do the same.

• KIRA KAY:

  The simmering perception that the Moscow Patriarchate is on the wrong side of history in Ukraine was too much for some priests, like Father Vitaly Eismonth.

• FATHER VITALY EISMONTH, Kyiv Patriarchate (through interpreter):

  I was anxious. I thought the church would speak, but the church was silent. And when Russian forces intruded in the east, the church I was serving for 23 years, and was defending all this time, turned its back on its people. I couldn't defend it anymore.

• KIRA KAY:

  Eismonth defected to the Kyiv Patriarchate and joined a church 100 miles from home, subordinate to much younger priests. He says the sacrifice it worth it.

• FATHER VITALY EISMONTH (through interpreter):

  People are awakening, and I think it's only the beginning. And of course it's alarming for the priests because their influence is not the one they thought they had.

• KIRA KAY:

  Kyiv Patriarch Filaret openly supports Ukraine's political changes, and doesn't pull any punches when talking about his rival church.

• PATRIARCH FILARET, Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate (through interpreter):

  In the Moscow Patriarchate, there are priests and bishops that are openly supporting Putin and calling our government a junta. And when people hear that, they want to leave.

• KIRA KAY:

  Bishop Kliment is the spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate.

• BISHOP KLIMENT, Spokesman, Moscow Patriarchate (through interpreter):

  This slander and informational filth has become a real propaganda war against our church that has escalated to the point where it destabilizes Ukraine.

• KIRA KAY:

  Kliment says that, although his church is affiliated with Russia, it makes its own decisions.

• BISHOP KLIMENT (through interpreter):

  We have both a political and military conflict in Ukraine, and some religious groups are using this to play some kind of card. Factually, what is happening is a raider seizure. They are unconstitutionally taking away the rights of people. They are opening a second front inside of Ukraine.

• PATRIARCH FILARET (through interpreter):

  The Moscow Patriarchate reacts as if we are invading its churches. We are not invading. We are accepting parishes that want to switch.

• KIRA KAY:

  One of the more contentious turnovers, which Bishop Kliment complained about to the Ukrainian Parliament, was in the village of Khodosy.

• WOMAN (through interpreter):

  Putin, stop. No go now to Ukraine.

• KIRA KAY:

  There was a vote here too, but the Moscow Patriarchate priest and his followers barricaded themselves inside, using a fire extinguisher to ward off the crowds that had gathered. Several people were injured, and local officials, like Ruslan Siviy, say they are not equipped to handle such chaos.

• RUSLAN SIVIY, Region Administrator (through interpreter):

  By law, the government shouldn't intervene into religious affairs. But, unfortunately, we can't stay out of this, since the tensions are physical. Government officials locally and in Kiev should create mechanisms to satisfy the people, so that it will be easier for us to manage.

• KIRA KAY:

  Ukraine's church crisis is now drawing strong language from Moscow, the Kremlin labeling it a human rights violation, and President Putin himself deriding activists for their silence on the seizures that he calls a tragedy.

  Back in Butyn, parishioners don't see it that way and are embracing their new church.

• NADIYA PARIY, Ukraine (through interpreter):

  Today, we are hearing a prayer for our dear Ukraine. We are a hearing prayer for our kids that died. We are hearing a prayer for those who are fighting for our freedom. That's why I am enormously happy.

• KIRA KAY:

  Meanwhile, holdouts Tamara and Olga are journeying to a Moscow Patriarchate church in a nearby town that has welcomed them and also their priest. It can be seen across the valley from the little blue church of Saint Nicolas, one more division in a nation at war.

  This is Kira Kay in Western Ukraine.