RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Ukrainian nationalists commit violence against Moscow-oriented church

UPTsMP REPORTS RADICALS' ATTACKS ON ITS CHURCHES IN ODESSA

RIA Novosti, 10 January 2018

 

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate (UPTsMP) accused radicals of attacks on its churches in the center of Odessa.

 

The press service of the local diocese reported that a group of six "aggressive young people pasted stickers onto the doors and walls" of the buildings.

 

Priests and parishioners demanded that they stop doing this. But in response the radicals began to insult them. They recorded the action on video.

 

When one of the priests tore off the leaflets, the hooligans tried to persuade him to allow them to finish filming for the "video report."

 

"They offered money to the priest who was interfering with the conduct of their action so that he would permit them to paste leaflets onto the walls of the church and remove them for the camera and leave. As soon as the priest responded with a refusal, they showered him with threats, including vulgar language," RIA Novosti was told in the diocese.

 

In the end, the young people were driven off.

 

The stickers contained the inscription "Beware the Moscow patriarchate," and they also indicated the distance to Moscow in kilometers.

 

According to representatives of the diocese, this was "absolutely a paid action," directed at destabilizing the situation in the city.

 

The press service emphasized that the believers consider that the actions of the hooligans hurt their religious feelings. The diocese called law enforcement agencies not only to assess what happened but also to take measures that there would not be more such incidents.

 

Later it was learned that unidentified persons robbed and desecrated the church of the Holy Protection in the city of Chernomorsk. They opened receptacles for donations and broke the altar doors.

 

On Monday, about 30 persons from the nationalist organization S14 blocked the entrance to the caves of the Kiev caves lavra. News media also reported actions of radicals in churches of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe. . . . (tr. by PDS, posted 10 January 2018)

 

 

 

UKRAINIAN RADICALS PROMISE NEW ACTIONS AGAINST UPTs OF MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

RIA Novosti, 9 January 2018

 

The radical nationalist organization S14 intends to continue actions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate, the Internet publication "Obozrevatel" reports.

 

Yesterday about 30 persons in balaclavas blockaded the entry to the caves of the Kiev caves lavra. S14 declared that their actions are directed "against the F.S.B." According to the coordinator of the organization, Markiyan Yatsiniak, now the actions of S14 will be more widespread and prolonged. The radicals intend to conduct them not only at the Kiev caves lavra but also in other facilities.

 

"But the lavra is the headquarters, from where they spread their ideas of the 'Russian world,'" Yatsiniak added. . . .

 

The ultranationalist organization S14 is connected with the party "Liberty" of Oleg Tiagnibok; in the early 2010s it was its youth wing.

 

S14 achieved notoriety after the state revolution in 2014. Its members participate in pogroms of stores and exhibits and they disperse rallies. (tr. by PDS, posted 10 January 2018)


 

"F.S.B. GET OUT OF THE LAVRA!": UKRAINIAN RADICALS MOVE FROM WORDS TO DEED

by Anton Skripunov

RIA Novosti, 9 January 2018

 

At Christmas, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is again under attack. Dozens of radicals from the grouping S14 blocked for several hours the entry into the Kiev caves lavra, threatening "to smoke out the F.S.B. from the shrine" and "to make it really Ukrainian." Two days before this a wave of anti-church actions swept across Ukraine. Now everyone is wondering what stands behind these attacks and how long the Ukrainian church of the Moscow patriarchate will last in the lavra. A RIA Novosti correspondent tries to comprehend what was the action by S14—an attempt to intimidate or the preparation of an assault.

 

Information about the blockade of the Kiev lavra was vigorously published in social networks by members of S14, posting photographs: dozens of young guys (most of them in masks) are displaying banners with the slogan "F.S.B., Get out of the lavra" and sending up flares.

 

"The action proceeded successfully. The F.S.B. showed its true face. Priests of the UPTsMP spoke about the junta, fratricidal war, and the National Guard, which 'kills children.' One of these blabbers got it right and he disappeared on the territory of the shrine," a member of the grouping, Sergei Mazur, reported on Facebook.

 

He did not hide his motives: he says it is necessary to save the Ukrainian shrine. "An enemy has seized it."

 

"We will smoke out the F.S.B. And the lavra will become genuinely Ukrainian," the radical promises.

 

It is noteworthy that on the day before the action, 7 January, many Ukrainian news media replicated the call of the journalist Aider Muzhdabaev to ban the UPTsMP, which he called "F.S.B. of the Moscow patriarchate." Radicals who broke into the Holy Trinity cathedral church of Dnepropetrovsk on 6 January right at the time of the Christmas service expressed themselves in the same spirit. At that time the nationalists conducted an action near one of the churches of the UPTsMP in Zaporozhe.

 

According to the members of S14 (which, incidentally, even in the U.S.A. is acknowledged to be terrorist), the occasion for the action in the Kiev lavra was most patriotic: you see, priests of the Moscow patriarchate do not want to perform funerals for those who have died in the ATO (Anti-terrorist Operation). And they are convinced that "the F.S.B. is guilty," whose "agents" are firmly entrenched within the walls of the shrine.

 

But strange thing: the radicals who seemed ready to "stand to the end," shouted and sent up flares, several hours later calmly dispersed. And then they declared their "success." Judging by everything, S14's antics were a part of a general information storm intentionally created around the Ukrainian church. And the time for the media attacks was selected deliberately—the holiday of the Nativity of Christ.

 

Eyewitnesses maintain that everything was arranged for a spectacular television show.

 

"I heard them; it was a collection of standard phrases for the Internet. They brought with them several television channels, including big ones. A live broadcast even was on YouTube," Olga, who was at the time of the action at the worship service in the lavra, described for RIA Novosti.

 

She said that the demonstrators "were inexperienced." By age "they were kids": "they shouted, and huffed, and dispersed."

 

"At the same time, there were 4,000 persons in the church. At the demonstration there were 50, but thousands were worshipping in the church. This speaks for itself," Olga explained.

 

At the Kiev caves lavra it was noted that although the radicals "shouted offensive slogans," it did not lead to any fights. But in the cloister, which is the administrative center of the UPTsMP, there is concern about the return of the nationalists.

 

The concerns are not baseless. In the autumn, the S.B.U. had to publically protect the monastery after a request for help that the monks addressed to Poroshenko. The abbot of the UPTsMP, Metropolitan of Vyshgorod Pavel, was subjected to continual attacks in the Ukrainian news media.

 

The coordinator of S14, Markian Yatsiniak, promised "more widespread" and prolonged actions at the walls of the Kiev caves lavra. And all because he considers the lavra to be the "headquarters" from which the ideas of the "Russian world" are disseminated.

 

Such accusations are not new. Back in 1992, under similar pretexts, nationalists and supporters of the Kiev patriarchate tried to storm the cloister. Unarmed believers then managed to hold off the radicals with clubs and chains. Since then the chief shrine of Ukraine has been a continual target: and the authorities simply close their eyes to the threats against its inhabitants. It was that way this time; the police, according to testimony of eyewitnesses, merely observed the action.

 

And nevertheless the Ukrainian church hopes for legal protection for the lavra. An important factor in this matter is the support of the cloister by ordinary believers, the press secretary of the UPTsMP, Vasily Anisimov, is sure.

 

"I do not think that the radicals will succeed in capturing the cloister. After all, the lavra is a shrine and thousands of people worship there every day," he concludes. (tr. by PDS, posted 10 January 2018)



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