SBU officials visit Ukrainian Orthodox Church premises in 9 regions of Ukraine - media

MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) - Officials from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) are conducting "counterintelligence events" on the premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in nine regions, the Ukrainian media reported on Wednesday.

According to the media, the regions are the Transcarpathia, Chernovtsy, Rovno, Volyn, Nikolayev, Sumy, Lvov, Zhitomir, and Kherson regions.

It is the largest operation conducted by the SBU on church premises in the past few weeks. No more than three dioceses of the canonical Orthodox Church were inspected daily previously.

Law enforcement officials said one of the purposes of the events is to prevent the use of religious communities as "Russian world" cells. During the searches, they are inspecting the territories and premises, looking for people who may be involved in illegal activities detrimental to Ukraine's state sovereignty, as well as searching for prohibited objects.