Lviv Regional Council deputy: We should drive UOC out of Zolochiv

Miroslava Babinskaya. Photo: screenshot/YouTube/GOLDEN.NET

It is necessary to expel the representatives of the UOC from Zolochiv, since they will not retreat on their own. Such a statement was made by the deputy of the Lviv Regional Council Miroslava Babinskaya, when commenting on the situation with the alleged construction of the UOC church under the guise of a residential building in Zolochiv city, Lviv region.

“Our struggle against the Moscow aggression in Zolochiv continues, because the Moscow Patriarchate is an aggressor in our city,” Babinskaya said to ZOLOCHIV. NET journalists. “This week the city council session was held after priests of all faiths had come here to protest, to raise this issue and make it public. The priests spoke very clearly and specifically at the session.”

She said that relevant appeals had already been filed with the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, the leadership of the SBU and the National Police in the Lviv Region "demanding that they immediately respond to this construction and the invasion of the Moscow Patriarchate in Zolochiv."

“At the session, I specifically proposed the following: first, to outlaw the Moscow Patriarchate in Zolochiv city and prohibit its activities; second, to give the owner of the house 24 hours from the date of the announcement of the decision of the City Council to dismantle and remove the trailer where the services are performed as an illegal small architectural form. Unless he does it, it should be expropriated by the utilities with daily payment for the storage of this property,” the deputy of the Lviv Regional Council said.

At the same time, she complained that not all deputies agreed with her proposal.

“It is not true that the City Council banned the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in Zolochiv – it decided to accept the appeal, i.e. this is such a very weak opposition to what Moskals are doing,” Babinskaya explained. “They are cheeky, they are arrogant, they break in, violate the law and persist with their goal. <...> I think that they should be driven out, for they themselves will not retreat. Handling appeals is time-consuming and during this time they (MP – Ed.) will erect a church with an MP priest."

Recall, the day before in Zolochiv a scandal arose around the alleged construction of the UOC church under the guise of a residential building. The alarm was sounded by public activists, members of the UGCC and city deputies. Mayor Igor Grinkiv said “there will be no Moscow church” in Zolochiv and initiated an extraordinary session of the City Council, at which the deputies unanimously voted to ban the construction.

Actually, no one is building the UOC temple in Zolochiv: a year ago, the clergyman of the eparchy, Father Maxim Yoenko, bought a half-house in this city for himself and his family and is now doing repair works. There is no parish of the UOC in Zolochiv, but when a priest of the canonical Church settled there, Orthodox residents asked him to hold a prayer service for them. The priest held a moleben service with a liturgy once, in a building trailer in a private local area. Outraged activists, along with the deputies, arranged night shifts at the cleric’s house; subsequently insulting inscriptions and Nazi symbols appeared on its fence.

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