KIEV, July 28 – One person was killed and eight injured on Wednesday when a bomb exploded at a Ukrainian church controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate in Zaporizhia, local authorities reported.

The explosion is the first such attack in Ukraine and comes as Russian political and religious leaders have been seeking to increase their influence in the country.

The SBU security service launched its investigation into the attack and agents have been examining the site of the explosion.

The blast was most likely to deepen the split between the two Ukrainian Orthodox Christian churches: one controlled by the Kiev Patriarchate and one controlled by Moscow Patriarchate.

The two churches have been making progress towards reconciliation and merger to create a Ukrainian church independent from Moscow during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko.

That process was postponed after the election of Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian figure, to the presidency in February.

Yanukovych has been leaning towards supporting the Moscow church and has been receiving blessing from Moscow Patriarch Kirill, while refusing to meet Kiev Patriarch Filaret.

Neither Yanukovych nor the government officials made any statement following the blast in Zaporizhia.

But Ukrainian bloggers quickly pointed out to the fact that Vladimir Putin’s rise to the power in Russia in 1999 and 2000 has begun from mysterious explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities that had been blamed on the Chechens.

Those explosions instigated hostility in Russia towards the Chechen and led to the war with Chechnya, strengthening Putin’s power.

“This is 100% the work of FSB [Russian security service] gang,” blogger Veterok wrote after the blast. “The same thing they did with the people in Moscow, Riazan before the Chechen war to stir up hatred towards Chechnya.”

“This is a hello from FSB,” blogger Adamovych wrote. “They know well who to explode and when!”

“Welcome to Russia, gentlemen,” another blogger wrote.

“Moscow has been introducing an FSB technique on shaping the mood of the people,” blogger Yuriy Yakhno wrote. “Do you remember the explosions in Moscow? Now, they will say the blast was set off by Ukrainian nationalists or by radicals from the Kiev Patriarchate.”

Russia has over the past several years drastically increased activity of its spy agencies throughout the world, gathering intelligence and doing other secret operations.

Nine Russian spies have been recently captured and expelled from the U.S., one was arrested in Cyprus and one most recently in the Czech Republic.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Moscow Patriarch Kirill and Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov, known for his anti-Ukrainian remarks, were in Crimea over the weekend to celebrate the Russian Navy Day.

All had separate meetings with Yanukovych, who is vacationing in Crimea since July 9 and is expected to return to Kiev on August 24.

The blast was set off at 16:26 at the Sviato-Pokrovskiy Cathedral in Zaporizhia, according to local authorities.

“There was a wrapped bundle sitting next to the door of the cathedral that nobody paid attention to,” a cathedral priest told Reporter Zaporizhia newpaper. “It exploded, destroying a half of the cathedral from the inside.”

“A nun was badly injured and was taken to the hospital with burns and wounds,” the priest said.

The 80-years old nun Liudmila died at the hospital, Nadia Sevalneva, a healthcare chief at the Zaporizhia administration, said.

“Her condition was really bad,” Sevalneva said. “She lost a lot of blood, more than 40% of her skin was burnd. She had a very bad injury.”

Ukrainian bloggers were angry that the officials have not made any reaction to the blast.

“People are being exploded, just like in Russia… And where is Yanukovych? Why he is not making any comments?... Ah, yes, he’s on vacation.” (tl/ez)