Metropolitan of Cherkasy on monastery seizure: We involve foreign lawyers

Metropolitan Feodosiy, head of the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC. Photo: a video screenshot of the YouTube channel "Cherkasy Blahovisnik"

The forceful seizure of the monastery of the UOC in the Cherkasy centre will be assessed by the international community, this is already being handled by authoritative foreign lawyers, said in a comment to the Telegram channel "Dozor on Kozak1" the head of the Cherkasy Eparchy of the UOC Metropolitan Feodosiy, who has the status of UN human rights defender.

"A brazen, insolent, bloody crime against the UOC believers in the very centre of Cherkasy cannot be left unattended," the bishop said. “The fact that law enforcers who were nearby did not react to it does not mean that the public will not react, and if not the Ukrainian, then the international community, seeing the crimes that are committed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, will certainly give them their assessment."

Metropolitan Feodosiy reported that in recent weeks there has been active formation of an international human rights association called "Church against Xenophobia and Religious Discrimination", and authoritative hierarchs from the UOC and other Local Churches have already joined it. Within this association, a project for emergency response to violent crimes is being developed, and its first step will be to bring information about the attack on the Cherkasy monastery to the international level.

"We are involving international lawyers, and today (November 20th – Ed.), I have already had a series of discussions on this issue with international human rights activists. Our Ukrainian lawyers at the national level are already documenting evidence of today's violence, working on complaints from the victims. We will undoubtedly seek international assistance. As part of the emergency procedures for international response, a media campaign abroad will be conducted, dedicated to violence against Ukrainian citizens – the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – so that in the future, no one dares to evict elderly nuns from their cells and beat priests in liturgical attire," emphasized Met. Feodosiy.

He added that the results of medical examinations of the victims who were beaten by the radicals during the seizure of the monastery would be attached to the lawsuits to Ukrainian courts and appeals to international instances.

As earlier reported, MP Artem Dmytruk said that the Ukrainian authorities would not be able to hide from the international community the crimes committed during the seizure of the UOC monastery in Cherkasy.

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