Lenkovtsy, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, February 12, 2024
Photo: spzh.media
As has happened hundreds of times in recent years, another Orthodox church was violently seized by Ukrainian nationalists and schismatics.
In late 2018, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, together with the U.S. and Ukrainian governments, created the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.” Since then, the supporters of this structure have routinely attacked those who profess the Orthodox faith and stolen their holy sites.
On February 8, a group of men in military uniform, with the help of armed police officers, attempted to seize the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the village of Lenkovtsy, Chernivtsi Province, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
When the local faithful tried to defend their church, they were violently attacked.
As often happens, the display of violence was preceded by a vote by villagers to force the church into the schismatic organization patronized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople against the desire of the Orthodox Christians in the village.
Several videos have appeared online showing several parishioners being brutally beaten:
According to the First Cossack outlet, the same group of people had seized another church in the Chernivtsi Diocese just two days prior.
The Chernivtsi Diocese reports that the churches were seized by hired militants from the Tigris security company.
Even as the Christians were being attacked, Epiphany Dumenko, the head of Constantinople’s OCU, was in the same region, proclaiming again that there is no religious persecution in Ukraine.
“How much bile must one have in one’s soul to say such a thing?” the Chernivtsi Diocese asks about Dumenko’s propaganda.
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