ROCOR Nun Tours Ukraine with Schismatics, Endorses Persecutor of Orthodox Church

Credit: Vassa Larin's Facebook

Kyiv, Ukraine — Sister Vassa, a ROCOR nun known for her history of provocative statements, has recently toured Ukraine in the company of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU). On May 9, 2025, she delivered a lecture titled “Freedom and Peace in the Era of Post-Truth” at the Kyiv Theological Academy, addressing OCU clerics and seminarians.

According to UOJ-Ukraine, representatives of Epiphany Dumenko characterized the speech as a critique of Russian propaganda, particularly its manipulation of the terms “freedom” and “peace” to sway Western audiences. They lauded her for exposing how these concepts are “distorted” in the “post-truth era.”

If anyone is an expert in information divorced from reality, it’s Sister Vassa herself. This was made especially clear in her jubilant announcement of having interviewed Viktor Yelensky, Ukraine’s Minister of Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience—better known as the architect and chief apologist for Law 3894-IX, the notorious legislation used to suppress the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

Vassa praises the as-yet-unreleased interview as “informative and sincere,” thanking Yelensky for his “time and kindness.” This is a peculiar description of a man whose “sincerity” has largely been limited to his open disdain for the Holy Orthodox Church. Yelensky insists that Law 3894-IX does not ban the UOC because it “doesn’t mention the UOC by name”—only religious organizations “headquartered in Russia.” This semantic sleight of hand ignores the fact that he has publicly labeled the UOC as a branch of the Russian Church, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It also disregards the awkward truth that his predecessor lost the job for concluding the UOC was not, in fact, connected to the Russian state.

What’s more bewildering is that Sister Vassa belongs to ROCOR, a canonical Church in communion with the UOC—and whose founding First-Hierarch was the Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia. And yet, she openly sides with those persecuting it.

By echoing Kyiv’s narrative that the UOC “undermines national security,” she implicitly accuses the faithful of treason—even as they defend Ukraine against Russian invasion, often at great personal cost. By touring with schismatics, lecturing in their institutions, and praying alongside them, she has not merely associated with the OCU; she has participated in their schism, betrayed the UOC, and violated the Holy Canons—both in letter and in spirit.

One wonders whether the ROCOR Synod will continue to remain silent while one of its nuns undermines the suffering faithful and lends credibility to their oppressors.

Sister Vassa’s controversial behavior is nothing new. Over the years, she has built a public persona on provocative statements and social activism. Curiously, it is during such episodes that she appears most attached to her monastic garb—often exchanging it for brightly colored secular clothing when off-camera.

In March 2024, she equated the political figure Alexei Navalny with Saint Alexander Schmorell, calling the former a "martyr like Alexander Schmorell." She spearheaded a manifesto-like open letter—styled as if it were the decision of a Church council—declaring the Russian World (Russkiy Mir) ideology a theological heresy. That this letter was signed not by clergy but by academics and activists highlights their own arrogance; it also highlights their confusion: how can a political or ethnographic theory, however flawed, be formally anathematized as heresy?

But Vassa's record stretches further back. In 2017, Sister Vassa sparked widespread outrage by referring to homosexuality as a "God-given gift and cross." The backlash was immediate, prompting her to delete the post and block critics. ROCOR’s Synod formally condemned her statements later that year.

Yet none of these previous controversies match the gravity of her actions in Ukraine.

Make no mistake: Sister Vassa has communed with Schismatics.

She proudly posts statements on her Facebook about their beautiful services, photos of the schismatics' nationalist prayers, the cathedrals they have seized, and how great it was to meet with the schismatics and the Uniates - who she traveled to Ukraine for the express purpose of meeting. She has now allied herself with those who seize churches, interrupt the funerals of soldiers killed at the front, slander the faithful, assault the elderly, stab clergy, press-gang young men and conscript clergy into front-line service, and bully Orthodox children in schools. These are the people Sister Vassa praises, legitimizes, and stands beside.

 If “Sister” Vassa so deeply desires communion with the schismatics, endorsement of sexual deviancy, and freedom from monastic discipline, the solution is simple: she should be laicized—if not excommunicated.

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