Research workers of Tauric Chersoneseto rally against appointing a UOC (MP) priest to director’s office

Research workersof the world-famous museum Tauric Chersonese (Sevastopol) plan to hold a mass picket against the decision of the Russian Sevastopol mayor Sergiy Menyayla to appointment archpriest Serhiy Haliuta, a clergyman of the Crimean diocese of the UOC (MP), Religion in Ukraine reportedciting Krym.Realyy.

We are absolutely law-abiding. We filed an application on Thursday, we have received no answers so far,” one of the reserve’s research workers told the journalist. He said the picket was scheduled for Thursday, July 7 at 17.00 at the very date the application was submitted.

The research team representative said that if the Russian government of Sevastopol prohibited the picketfor whatever reasons, the collective would apply again and again until they achieved a positive result.

“If we fail to do iton Thursday, we will try on Monday,if not Monday, we will try in three days and so on, until our application is approved," an employee of the museum said.

Scientists still refuse to accept archpriest Serhiy (Halyuta) as the new director of the institution and intend to achieve either his personal resignation or a decision to remove the clergyman from this post.

The team refuses to accept a new leader and says that the appointment of certain persons to this post should take place in coordination with the Museum’s workers. The research workers demand that municipal leadership returnedthe previously dismissed director, Andriy Kulagin, to the office.

Spokesperson for Ukraine Foreign Ministry Mariana Betz saidin a comment posted on the ministry site on Monday: “The decision of the Russian leadership to include landmarks and attractions of the National Reserve Chersonese into  theUnified register of cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation attests that Russian side is ignoring the principles and norms of international law. In the context of temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia, Russia's decisions may be regarded only as an attempt to appropriate the cultural heritage of Ukraine.”

Despite the fact that the conflict in Kherson reached the Ukrainian and Russian national levels, the UOC (MP) have not commented on the event.