Police open case over fake video about orphanage run by Metropolitan Longin

Metropolitan Longin with children. Photo: UOC

On May 23, 2025, the Bukovyna regional police announced on their official page that they had initiated criminal proceedings concerning activities at a children’s home affiliated with a monastery. The case was opened two days after several Ukrainian media outlets published reports based on a fictional "investigation" targeting Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny.

The police stated: “During social media monitoring, Bukovyna police discovered a video alleging criminal activity at a children’s home located on the premises of a monastery in the Chernivtsi region.”

On May 21, several Ukrainian outlets published false materials accusing Metropolitan Longin of abuse, relying on a video “investigation” by photographer Edgar Kalancha. In the footage, Kalancha interviews anonymous individuals with obscured faces, claiming to be former residents of the Bancheny orphanage, and recounting supposed horrors and severe exploitation.

However, Kalancha himself introduced the video by stating that “all references to individuals, events, or organizations are fictional or interpreted from open sources in the form of satire, hypothesis, or artistic license.”

As previously reported by the UOJ, the orphanage at the Bancheny Monastery was founded in 1992 when Hieromonk Michael (the future Metropolitan Longin) adopted a six-month-old girl suffering from AIDS.

Initially, the orphanage was housed within the Holy Ascension Monastery in the village of Bancheny. Later, a special residential complex for children was constructed in the village of Molnytsia, Hertsaiv district, Chernivtsi region –  four kilometers from the monastery. This complex was consecrated on September 29, 2002, by Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

The orphanage holds official status as a “family-type children’s home.” All children are either adopted or under the legal guardianship of Metropolitan Longin. The number of children has steadily grown – from about 50 in the early 2000s to around 250 by 2010, and by 2020, approximately 415 children were under the monastery’s care.

Many of the children are living with serious disabilities or HIV. The monastery provides comprehensive support, including medical care, for these children.

The children are cared for by nuns from the nearby Boyany women’s monastery (also founded by Metropolitan Longin), along with professional educators and caregivers. The orphanage maintains proper living and sanitary conditions and provides education and healthcare.

In 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Bancheny Monastery and its orphanage took in more than 110 orphans from the Kramatorsk Infant Home. According to Metropolitan Longin, over 8,000 internally displaced persons from eastern Ukraine have passed through the monastery.

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