REPRESENTATIVES OF RIGHT SECTOR IN UKRAINE SEIZE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Interfax-Religiia, 13 February 2015
Nationalists harassed parishioners of the church of the Elevation of the Cross in the village of Bolshaia Sevastianovka of the Cherkassy province of Ukraine.
On 12 February, a group of people in camouflage uniforms with insignia of the Right Sector blockaded the church after the liturgy. This action was preceded by a "village assembly" [veche] at which people who are not residents of the village and have nothing to do with the parish "resorted to outright insults of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," the UPTs website reports.
"Persons in camouflage uniforms forcibly ejected the dean of Khristinovsk district, Archpriest Vasily Mikhanchuk, and did not give him the opportunity to express his view of the situation. But the organizers of the "veche" by intimidation forced the local priest to transfer to the schism. After this they posted around the church their own security and did not admit believers," the report says.
It notes that representatives of the village council "have withdrawn from prevention of illegal actions by out-of-town radicals, which has facilitated the instigation of yet another outbreak of interconfessional hostility." (tr. by PDS, posted 13 Friday 2015)
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