Arsonists of Tithes Monastery declare about their opening of religious front

After being let out of the detention center (SIZO), architects-arsonists of Tithes Monastery of the UOC asked to qualify their actions as a precedent and the turning point for opening the “cultural and religious front.” Such a statement was made at the press-conference in Ukraine crisis media center, dedicated to the situation around Desiatinny Monastery.

At the beginning of the briefing, one of the arsonists stated that "this action and this process have no religious implication. Everything happens on a social plane", which excludes violence. According to him, "this cannot be done, it is necessary to solve the problem only with the instruments of social dialogue. Our action was aimed at drawing public attention to intervention."

However, at the end of the briefing Alexey Shemotiuk asked the journalists to "take the topic a little broader" and said that by this situation (attack on the monastery and its arson) they are trying to make a precedent and compared it with the "front".
"On the armed front, we have both a concept and an opportunity to protect ourselves. As for the language issue – it is difficult, hard, with scandals, but we are also moving in the right direction, i.e. the front on the language issue is sustainable. The front for propaganda is still weak, but under the attention of the public and the authorities, and there are victories," explained Shemotiuk. "Yet the cultural front and the religious front are completely out of the spotlight."

He expressed the hope that "this precedent," the process which is under way, "will trigger the opening of the front for the protection of Ukrainian culture."

The lawyer of the architects said that the criminal case against them has no prospects, and called their action "courageous".

Earlier the UOJ reported that MP Igor Lutsenko who looked like one of the monastery’s assaulters within S14 radical organization, in the publication on Facebook "The war against the ROC (the FSB)" is perplexed by what the patriot-arsonists were arrested for, "who are sensitive to any dissonance in the city landscape."

Detained arsonists who called after their arrest to non-violent protest and law, threatened the monastery's brethren and shouted, "I'll burn you, slut! You're a KGB officer. I'll kick you now with my leg, okay? You are a slut that has no place here – I tell you that in Russian. To you, clowns in skirts, there is no respect."

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