Bancheny, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, May 26, 2025
Arson was committed against the Holy Ascension-Bancheny Monastery last week, amidst a slanderous media campaign against the monastery founder His Eminence Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny.
An outbuilding on agricultural land owned by the monastery was set ablaze on Friday, May 23. The monastery published video of the burning building:
The fire occurred on the same day that the Chernivtsi Province police reported opening a criminal case against the staff of the orphanage operated by the monastery.
Met. Longin and the monastery have operated an orphanage since 1992, when His Eminence, then known as Hieromonk Mikhail, adopted a six-month-old girl with AIDS. Since then, he has gone on to adopt hundreds of children, many with sicknesses and disabilities. He has even been formally recognized as a Hero of Ukraine, but the state now considers him an enemy because he staunchly remains within the Orthodox Church.
On May 21, a number of Ukrainian outlets published fake materials against Met. Longin and the monastery and orphanage, based on a “video investigation” by photographer Edgar Kalancha, claiming that the orphanage sold drugs, ran a brothel, severely beat the children, and that the nuns drank alcohol with the children, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ).
However, in the introduction to his video, Kalancha openly admits that the video is a fake—an “artistic fiction.”
The text at the beginning of the video states:
All mentions of personalities, events or organizations are fictional or interpreted from open sources in the form of satire, hypothesis or artistic license.
All events described in the material should be considered as manifestations of artistic fiction, hyperbole or critical analysis within the framework of freedom of speech and self-expression. Any resemblance to real persons or events is coincidental or is the result of interpretation of publicly available information.
“Thus, Kalancha’s materials can be regarded as artistic fiction aimed at defaming Met. Longin of Bancheny,” writes the UOJ.
“The black PR campaign against the Metropolitan has been launched, and it’s already bearing fruit. On May 23, one of the utility buildings at Bancheny Monastery was set on fire. And from here we can expect something even worse,” the outlet writes.
Yesterday, a group of Met. Longin’s children published a video appeal to Kalancha, saying they could provide a refutation to every point he made in his video.
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His Eminence has suffered several severe health incidents since the state launched its campaign against him. He suffered a stroke in July 2023, and he was admitted to the hospital that December with atrial fibrillation, after which he underwent heart surgery. Later that month, his car was unjustly detained and he suffered a heart arrhythmia due to the stress.
His Eminence was physically attacked in his home in late January 2024 and had to undergo emergency eye surgery.
That February, he underwent another heart procedure. In August, he was admitted to the ICU after a car accident.
And during a court session that October , the staunch hierarch became visibly ill and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
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