About a hundred masked people broke into the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Cherkasy, in central Ukraine, during the night Liturgy, opened fire on the parishioners and used pepper spray, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
The Association adds that vandals broke into the church and then stole it, after which they fled the sanctuary, and during that time, according to the locals, they shot at the worshipers with air pistols.
Not only the money collected by the faithful (about 60,000 dollars), documents and computers were stolen from the Orthodox temple - icons and penagiums also disappeared, according to the Association of Orthodox Journalists.
The Cherkasy Diocese claims that the vandals also took phones from the faithful in order to prevent them from recording what was happening.
However, several recordings surfaced, and one of them was published by Rada deputy Artyom Dmitruk, who left Ukraine.
Orthodox journalists report that a second attack on the cathedral is underway.
According to their information, the believers called the police, although at this moment the security structures, which are supposed to maintain order, and which exist at the expense of taxpayers, refuse to respond to the actions of the bandits.
The people gathered in large numbers to defend the shrine, some of them are praying in front of the temple.
Few members of the police left the territory of the temple and the believers were left to their own devices. Such an atmosphere is confirmed by the fact that the mayor of Cherkassy essentially invited the city's residents to participate in the looting of the Cathedral, which belongs to the only canonical Orthodox church in Ukraine.
He points out that the authorities did not interfere in the situation surrounding the cathedral and that the community voluntarily came under the authority of the non-canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU).
At the same time, vandals on social networks are gathering their supporters for the second "attack on the Cathedral of St. Archangel Michael".
Metropolitan Teodosije of Cherkassy and Kanev also spoke about the attack and confirmed that the city councilor was among the attackers, who was caught by the people and handed over to the police.
The Metropolitan called for the protection of the temple in case of repeated attacks: "Brothers and sisters! If such an act is repeated again, we are obliged to defend our cathedral church. We have to protect our sanctuary from robbers who did not build it, do not know how to pray, but only steal, beat and obey the authorities and their overseas so-called. "spiritual masters".
The bandits use every opportunity to provoke the faithful, so those believers who failed to enter the territory of the temple and stayed outside the gate and prayed, played loud music and pointed the light of flashlights at them in order to prevent filming.
The faithful managed to identify who was responsible for the musical accompaniment that drowned out the prayer and informed the Orthodox journalists that it was the "sacred person" of PCU Nazari Zasanski who participated in the robbery of the Cherkasy Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary a year ago and who is a prosecution witness in the proceedings against Metropolitan Theodosius.
RPC: This is a terrorist act
The attack on the Cathedral of St. Archangel Michael in Cherkassy is a terrorist act carried out with the support of the schismatic PCU, the deputy president of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vakhtang Kipshidze, told RIA Novosti.
"It was no secret to anyone that the representatives of the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine are a bunch of lawless, robbers and extremists of various kinds." This case only proves that they can behave like ISIS militants who break into churches with the aim of occupying and robbing them," Kipshidze emphasized, reports RT Balkan.
According to him, neither this terrorist act, nor all other terrorist acts carried out or supported by the PCU, will cause any reaction from the Ukrainian authorities or their Western patrons, who freed the hands of the extremists to destroy the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
An attack on the same temple was already attempted on September 29. Vernica then managed to defend him from the hooligans, TASS reminds.
Source: IN4S
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