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Russian Church accusses Ukrainian authorities of persecutions against Orthodox Christians on the Donbas

05.08.2014, 16:13
Russian Church accusses Ukrainian authorities of persecutions against Orthodox Christians on the Donbas. "We are calling on the Ukrainian state authorities to put a barrier in the way of those who would want the civil conflict to escalate into an inter-faith standoff as such a scenario would largely postpone the long-awaited peace on Ukrainian land," the Synodal Information Department said in a statement published today.

Russian Church accusses Ukrainian authorities of persecutions against Orthodox Christians on the Donbas. "We are calling on the Ukrainian state authorities to put a barrier in the way of those who would want the civil conflict to escalate into an inter-faith standoff as such a scenario would largely postpone the long-awaited peace on Ukrainian land," the Synodal Information Department said in a statement published today.

"Ever more reports are being received about acts of violence against churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its priests who found themselves in the hostilities zone," the statement said.

The statement reports that the priests are being harassed, tortured and intimidated, detained and interrogated by armed members of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church or non-canonical groups, who claim they are authorized by the government and put forward "absurd accusations and ultimatums, including that of pulling out from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and, therefore, re-writing the church's property". Although it doesnt give precise examples, except for the testimonies of local clergy and letter from locum tenens of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate

A cleric from the St. George's Church in the Lugansk diocese, Archpriest Vladimir Kreslyanskiy, died from injuries sustained in a shelling of residential areas of Lugansk, the document said. His five children are now orphans. It's worth mentioning that another Orthodox priest was killed in May on the separatists checkpoint. Orthodox and Catholic priests were kidnapped (all are released), sons of the protestant minister killed in Sloviansk.

At the same time press-secretary of Volyn eparchy reported to local press that Donbass separatists threaten eparchy for helping the Ukrainian Army.