AFU soldier: 70% of my battalion are UOC members
Ivan Valevsky, an AFU soldier. Photo: a video screenshot of the Telegram channel "Dozor on ‘1Kozak’”
A wounded Ukrainian military man, Ivan Valevsky, came to Teofipol, Khmelnytskyi region, to support the community of the Church of St John of Kronstadt, which activists have illegally "transferred" to the OCU against the will of the parishioners. The soldier’s appeal was published on the Telegram channel "Dozor on ‘1Kozak’”.
The military man urged the UOC believers to remain faithful to their faith and not to defect to the OCU, where "the state wants to drive Ukrainians".
"I am a parishioner of the UOC, fighting since 2014. Now I am wounded, I am in the ranks of the AFU. I came to support Fr. Sergiy so that people do not go to the OCU, which I consider a non-canonical and not real Church. <...> What I am fighting for at the moment I don't understand myself. Although I understand that I said I was fighting for Ukraine, for its freedom, and its honour. But to take away the faith is not only ungodly, it is not human," he said.
Read also
In Podgorica, multi-thousand procession held on city's patron saint day
Thousands of believers walked in a procession through the capital of Montenegro, honoring the memory of Saint Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming.
Persecuted UOC parish in Zeleniv reads Great Canon
A Bukovynian Orthodox community, deprived of its church in 2024, conducts Great Lent services in an adapted facility.
Patriarch Bartholomew warns against unacceptable peace for Ukraine
The head of the Constantinople Church stated that to achieve peace in Ukraine, the leaders of nations must take the "narrow path of justice."
MinCulture opens Lavra's Near Caves only for groups and by reservation
The Ministry of Culture's statement says that "the opening of the Near Caves for believers is not only a long-awaited and outstanding event in church life but also a sign of the indestructibility of our faith".
Metropolitan Onuphry reads Great Canon at Intercession Convent of Kyiv
The Primate of the UOC led the Great Compline with the reading of the second part of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete at the capital's Intercesssion Convent.
OCU “hierarch” selling fake ID documents sent to pre-trial detention center
The Ivano-Frankivsk court has chosen a preventive measure for the OCU "bishop" suspected of issuing fictitious ordination certificates for the rank of deacon to evade mobilization.