According to Western intelligence agencies, the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVRU) is working to monitor the spread of Ukrainian Orthodox groups loyal to Moscow throughout Western Europe. Specifically, the service is monitoring the spread of these networks in Switzerland and France, especially in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region bordering Switzerland.
Kiev is also targeting Vadym Novinsky, an oligarch who made his fortune in the metallurgical industry. A Ukrainian court issued an arrest warrant for him in September 2025 on charges of treason.
Novinsky was a Russian citizen, but on May 29, 2012, he obtained Ukrainian citizenship by decree of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He is an influential religious figure, elevated to the rank of protodeacon in 2021, and is considered by Ukrainian authorities both an influential leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP) and a key figure in Moscow’s sphere of influence.
Yanukovych’s financial influence, combined with the absence of European sanctions, allowed him to subsidize several churches in Europe to gather intelligence on the Ukrainian diaspora. This allowed the SVRU to learn that he was also capable of conducting recruitment activities aimed at conducting hybrid warfare operations on behalf of Moscow.
The SVRU believes that, after establishing themselves in Belgium, Novinsky’s networks are now attempting to establish themselves in France. Ukrainian intelligence is closely monitoring the Zurich-Geneva-Lyon corridor in particular and has already identified several individuals of interest to local Orthodox networks. Novinsky himself regularly serves as archdeacon at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Zurich, the largest Russian Orthodox parish in Switzerland, which celebrated its 90th anniversary in April.
At the other end of the corridor, in Lyon, intelligence services believe they have identified at least one priest, Vasily P., with ties to the Ukrainian oligarch.
These networks intersect and sometimes even come into contact with those of the Russian Orthodox Church. French security services are already closely monitoring the latter’s movements in France.
Graziella Giangiulio
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