THE Russian Orthodox Church called today for the United Nations, the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and others to put pressure on Ukraine over what it says is the harassment of its clergy.

Ukrainian clerics meet tomorrow and are expected to form a new “autocephalous,” or self-led, church within the Orthodox communion. Previously they have always been part of the Russian church, but Ukraine’s nationalist leadership since 2014 have pushed for independence. This would have to be approved by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople (Istanbul), the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

Orthodox priests reluctant to break away from the church have seen churches and homes searched and many have been detained for questioning by the country’s security police force the SBU, accused of support for anti-fascist forces in the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk republics.

The crackdown has uncomfortable historical echoes, as the mass arrest and killing of Orthodox clergy seen as potential Russian agents was one of the first acts of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the outbreak of the first world war.