Verkhovina and Zolochev, Ukraine, September 28, 2020
Photo: spzh.news
Ukrainian police drew up reports and launched investigations in two separate incidences over the weekend in which representatives of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU) threatened to kill priests of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.
In one incident, the threat came from a “priest” of the OCU. The clergy of the OCU were rehabilitated by Patriarch Bartholomew and the Patriarchate of Constantinople in October 2018 when it accepted and entered into communion with the schismatics of the “Kiev Patriarchate” and the “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church” which merged into the OCU.
In a Facebook conversation on Friday, Peter Sokolovsky, a schismatic priest in the Kolomiya Diocese of the OCU, threatened to kill the canonical priest Fr. Pavel Beliy (whose last name means “white”), telling him he would “roll [him] up in the black earth.”
A screenshot of the conversation was published by the Ukrainian outlet strana.ua.
The OCU priest, who lives in Verkhovina, threatened Fr. Pavel, telling him he’d better not preach on “our land” or he would Ьno longer be White [Beliy] because of the black earth.” In a second message he writes that “our land is Ukraine, but you’re a Muscovite here,” referring to the fact that Fr. Pavel is a priest of the canonical Ukrainian Church that enjoys self-governing autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate.
“We will grab you and roll you up in the black earth,” Sokolovsky added.
Fr. Pavel took the threats seriously and send screenshots of the conversation to the police, who then opened criminal proceedings under article 129 of the criminal code for threat of murder, which provides for a punishment of up to 2 years imprisonment.
The second incident occurred early this morning in Zolochev in the Lviv Province, where schismatic-nationalists have continually harassed Fr. Maxim Yoenko and his family and parishioners.
Unknown vandals graffitied “Get out ROC [Russian Orthodox Church]” and “????” on the fence around Fr. Maxim’s house and dashed read and green paint on the walls of his house.
Fr. Maxim told the Union of Orthodox Journalists that they heard a loud knocking sound at about 5:45 this morning. They checked the security cameras they had to install because of the continual harassment and soon saw a man coming up to their gate, trying to bend the metal. They later rewound the tape and saw two men with their faces concealed by hoods.
When Fr. Maxim went out into the yard, the man who was attacking the fence demanded: “Get out of Zolochev, or you will burn.”
He later found that the men had thrown a half-liter jar of an unknown substance at the trailer in his yard, which currently serves as the church for the canonical community, but it did not break. Fr. Maxim called the police, who arrived at the scene and drew up a report.
The same night, vandals also attacked a children’s store belonging to one of the canonical parishioners, graffitiing, “sponsor of the ROC” and “boycott” on the walls.
The threats and harassment against Fr. Maxim began in July when local and provincial officials called for the canonical Ukrainian Church to be forcefully driven out of Zolochev. Their house was previously graffitied with racist and nazi symbols and their fence has repeatedly been attacked.
