Mariupol pastor sends children to dig trenches amid martial law
Pastor Mokhnenko with children from the Pilgrim Center. Photo: video's screenshot
Following the incident in the Kerch Strait, Mariupol pastor Hennadii Mokhnenko sent teenagers from the Pilgrim Rehabilitation Center to dig trenches along the coast of the Sea of Azov, Mariupol TV channel TV7 reported.
The report shows children working on military fortifications under the supervision of Hennadii Mokhnenko, pastor of the Pentecostal Good Deeds Church, who appears on camera wearing a camouflage jacket bearing the word “Chaplain.”
A serviceman with the call sign “Kot” said he welcomed this kind of activity for children, saying it instills patriotism in them from an early age.
The Pilgrim charitable foundation, which runs the orphanage, said the purpose of the work was to bring positions along the Sea of Azov coast to combat readiness by “clearing overgrown trenches, dugouts, and other defensive fortifications.” The foundation said similar activities would continue in the future.
In 2015, Mokhnenko announced that children from his orphanage had gone on a hunger strike in response to the shelling of Mariupol. The pastor maintained that the children themselves had initiated the protest.
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