Moscow, August 8, 2014
On Saturday, at 16:00, near the Ukrainian embassy representatives of the Christian human rights center held a commemorative action as a token of their intolerance of persecutions against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Ukraine, reports the Vera I Delo (Faith and Works) Orthodox portal.
The Christian human rights center members lit commemorative candles according to the number of the destroyed churches in the Ukraine, and stretched out huge posters with photographs of the country’s ruined churches.
It should be reminded that several days ago the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), a major scientific-research and analytical centre, published a document containing conclusive evidence of demonstrations of religious intolerance towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
According to the published information, since the beginning of 2014, 36 facts of destruction of churches, situated on the territory of the Ukraine and belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate have been recorded.
Thus, for example, a church in Horlivka in the Donetsk region has been recently destroyed. In the south-west of the Ukraine a clergyman of the Severodonetsk diocese, cleric of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the town of Pervomaysk, Priest George Nikishov was killed following a shrapnel injury. He is the third clergyman murdered in the Ukraine as a result of the combat operations.
The reasons for such actions are related to the preceding aggressive information propaganda against UOC (Moscow Patriarchate). Over that period, the central Ukrainian TV channels have been giving about 2-4 news items per week against UOC, the Russian Orthodox Church and their clergy.
“Unless the Ukrainian leaders stop the destruction of churches and killing of priests, then it will face a spiritual and moral impoverishment very soon,” the Christian human rights center is convinced.
