Swiss cleric tells Europeans about seizure of the cathedral in Bila Tserkva

Orthodox church reader from Switzerland Samuel Milko. Photo: video screenshot in S. Milko's Telegram channel

The reader of the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in the city of Basel (Switzerland) Samuel Milko posted a video message in German on his Telegram channel, in which he spoke about the church raid of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC in Bila Tserkva by supporters of the OCU on July 10, 2023. The story is accompanied by video footage of the storming of the shrine.

Samuel also published the text of his appeal in translation into English and Russian.

The cleric said that during the seizure of the temple, the OCU activists, who acted with the support of the police, behaved aggressively and resorted to violence.

“Instead of halting the raiders, the police did not allow the believers of the UOC to prevent the seizure of the Bila Tserkva Cathedral,” the cleric reports. “For me, the behavior of the police is absolutely incomprehensible. During the air raid, they blocked the parishioners from entering the cathedral, where the bomb shelter is located.

Samuel spoke about the "act of a sincere, real clergyman" – Archimandrite Alexy, who, with the help of a fire extinguisher, defended the cathedral from raiders who broke the door of the church with a sledgehammer.

The cleric stressed that the invaders of the cathedral are acting illegally, since there is still no court decision on the legitimate transfer of the shrine to another confession.

The author of the video explained to the Europeans that the UOC is “a Church with a 1000-year tradition”, while the OCU was created by the authorities under President Poroshenko.

“The OCU serves the government that currently rules in Ukraine. These are the people who are now attacking the temple and the traditional Church. In recent days, weeks, months, the police, security forces, and other groups, which are currently serving the political power in Ukraine, have been resorting to a very aggressive behavior and violence against believers, including women and children. For example, they use tear gas and other methods of aggression,” said Samuel.

He also asked believers in Europe to pray "for Ukraine, for the Church and the people who are suffering a lot right now."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that having learned that there was a threat of the raid of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Samuel Milko arrived at the monastery on March 28, 2023, and stayed there until recently.

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