Epiphany asked to publicly explain actions of OCU cleric in Novi Sanzhary

Confrontation between local residents and security forces in Novi Sanzhary. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Ihor Mosiychuk, a former Ukrainian MP and ex-member of the “Radical Party of Oleh Liashko”, has demanded that the OCU head, Epiphany Dumenko, should give a public assessment of the actions of cleric Dmitry Pedina, who protested in the urban village of Novi Sanzhary in the Poltava region.

"I demand a public position and explanations from the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany because, as it turned out, one of the initiators of the action to prevent the Ukrainians evacuated from Wuhan to Novi Sanzhary was a priest of the OCU, the rector of the Transfiguration Church of the OCU in Novi Sanzhary Dmitry Pedina," wrote Mosiychuk on his Facebook page.

The ex-deputy noted that the OCU cleric, "denying the norms of Christian morality," called the evacuated Ukrainians "deported," and called for "shameful actions in relation to their compatriots", which is "non-Christian and immoral”.

"An attempt to silence the shameful behaviour of Dmitry Pedina is as immoral and shameful as an attack on buses with the evacuated Ukrainians, and therefore we expect the reaction of the OCU!” Ihor Mosiychuk stressed.

As reported earlier, on February 20, 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreigners evacuated from Wuhan – a city in China, which became the epicenter of coronavirus, – were brought to the medical centre of the National Guard of Ukraine "Novi Sanzhary" for a strict two-week quarantine. The locals opposed the idea of placing people in their settlement and blocked the road to the sanatorium with a huge van. One of the active protesters, who called for blocking the hospital, was a cleric of the OCU Dmitry Pedina.

To calm the protests, the authorities sent dozens of equipped law enforcers and several armoured vehicles to Novi Sanzhary. Buses with evacuated Ukrainians were attacked with stones.

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