OCU about fight in cathedral in Cherkasy: Deliberate provocation of those who wanted to ’create picture’ for Russian propaganda
The OCU believes that the conflict on the territory of St. Michael's Cathedral in Cherkasy between groups of citizens is a deliberate provocation by certain individuals to "create a picture" for Russian propaganda.
This was stated by Metropolitan Yevstratii (Zoria) of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine during a telethon, Censor.NET reports citing hromadske.
According to him, "in many recent years" there have been examples when representatives and supporters of the MP prevent communities from leaving the UOC-MP.
Metropolitan Yevstratii called the incident in the cathedral in Cherkasy, which occurred the day before, a "special exception."
He reminded that the metropolitan of the Cherkasy diocese of the UOC-MP is Theodosius (Snegirev), who is under investigation and has several suspicions from the SSU.
"That is, this is a person who, even against the background of the institution of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, is particularly distinguished by pro-Russian views," the OCU Metropolitan said.
He added that the events in the cathedral were "a deliberate provocation by specific individuals who tried to create a picture for Russian propaganda."
According to him, Metropolitan Theodosius knew in advance that the community wanted to move to the OCU and carefully prepared a provocation to discredit Ukraine and the adopted law banning religious organizations associated with the Russian Federation.
What preceded it?
On the morning of 17 October, supporters of the Russian Orthodox Church stormed St Michael's Cathedral in Cherkasy and caused a disturbance. A fight broke out between supporters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
This happened after it was reported that the church had moved from the UOC-MP to the OCU.
Metropolitan Ioan of Cherkasy and Chyhyryn said in a commentary to "Suspilne" that the transfer of the community took place on 12 June.
The police of Cherkasy region opened a criminal investigation into hooliganism.
St Michael's Cathedral is the largest Orthodox church in Ukraine.
