Yurash: Kruty awaits Kyiv students again

Andrii Yurash, Head of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. Photo: ZIK TV Channel

The Director of the Department for Religious Affairs and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, Andrii Yurash, on his Facebook page compared members of the religious community of the St. Michael’s Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Kruty, Chernihiv region, to “Muravyov’s hordes” and declared the need for new fighters against the “church imperial past” to appear in the village.

Yurash described the fact that believers prevented raiders from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from seizing their church as yet another defeat in the historic Battle of Kruty.

“Kruty is a legendary and extremely important, symbolic place for Ukrainian history of the twentieth century. … Today, once again, for the third time in 101 years, four months, and three days – but already for the second time since February of this year – a battle took place here. Ukrainians have for the third time so far suffered a situational defeat in the Kruty battle: it turned out that the ‘Muravyov’ hordes and gangs have put down deep roots in the Chernihiv region. But today is not 1918! Kruty is once again waiting for Kyiv students, in order to finally and definitively break with the imperial past – including the church imperial past,” the official wrote.

As a reminder, on June 1, 2019, in the village of Kruty in the Nizhyn district, representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate, together with several individuals who do not attend church services, announced a meeting while presenting themselves as the St. Michael’s parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However, the believers of Kruty rose to defend their church and the canonical Church, thwarting the provocation by supporters of the Kyiv Patriarchate and far-right activists.

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