Victim of OCU attack in Cherkasy: I'd rather be killed than change my faith
Oleh Slobodianyk, a victim of an attack by OCU raiders on a monastery in Cherkasy. Photo: a video screenshot of the YouTube channel "Cherkasy Blahovisnyk"
Oleh Slobodianyk, a 76-year-old parishioner of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos, appealed to the international community from his hospital room, where he went after being beaten by OCU raiders during the seizure of the shrine. The man's appeal was published on Cherkasy Eparchy’s YouTube channel.
Slobodianyk said that for many years he had been acquainted with those who beat him in the monastery.
"Hirelings Kukharchuk, Zaychuk, all those guys I've known for very many years, they committed lawlessness. They started beating all the people, women, and priests, I was hit on the head, then they broke my leg in two places and I was hospitalized. I have nothing to fear. I appeal to the police, to the SBU. You were standing there, you saw all this," he said. “You took an oath that you would protect the people, not the government or presidents. The Constitution does not protect us. I want you to pay attention to Ukraine and hear me, an ordinary citizen of Ukraine".
The man also called on Orthodox Christians from all over the world to pay attention to the violence and persecution that believers are subjected to in Ukraine.
According to him, even after the beating, he continued to receive numerous threats.
"They want to destroy us so that there is no Orthodox faith in Ukraine. All this is done by the hands of 'patriots', although I would not call them that. I have already received threats that they will kill, bleed, and slaughter me. <...> I have always been a patriot. I am not a Russian, I do not work for Russia, I do not work for Putin. I live in Cherkasy; I have been going and will go to the Orthodox Church. And I'd rather be killed than change my faith. Let’s be patient. Fear not, they intimidate us, they only want us to submit," the believer added.
As reported, in Cherkasy, medics kicked out into the street victims of the attack on the monastery.
Read also
Marynivka Protection Monastery monks extinguish fire in neighboring village
The brotherhood of the Protection Monastery used its own fire truck to save an outbuilding attached to a home in the village of Severynivka from the flames.
Met. Theodosiy: Patriarch Bartholomew’s decision led to persecution of UOC
The UOC hierarch said the Ecumenical Patriarch ignored the will of Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful when creating the OCU.
Biletsky: There has never been a Russian soldier in Sviatohirsk
The Azov commander said there have never been Russian troops in Sviatohirsk and that, overall, “everything is fine” in the city.
Met. Theodosiy: I believe slain Sviatohirsk monk joined ranks of martyrs
Metropolitan Theodosiy said that being a UOC priest or monk in Ukraine is now life-threatening.
In Dashkivtsi, OCU cleric and police cut locks and seize UOC church
OCU supporters seized a UOC church in the Khmelnytskyi Eparchy using falsified documents.
TRC releases UOC rector in Radisne
Archpriest Mykhailo Bilokon, rector of the Church of Sts. Boris and Gleb, was released and allowed to return home with a summons requiring him to report to the TRC in one week.