Kosiv mayor claims UOC believers need to be deported to Russia

In his letter to Bishop Veniamin of Khotyn (temporary administrator of the Ivano-Frankivsk diocese), Yury Ploskonos, head of the city council of Kosiv city, Ivano-Frankivsk region, stated that he is "ready in every way to facilitate" the deportation of UOC believers to the Russian Federation. The letter was published by the firtka resource.

In his message to the bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Yu. Ploskonos expressed his indignation by the fact that after the Council in Feofania, Metropolitan Onuphry continues to commemorate Patriarch Kirill in diptychs and said that the reason for the attack of the Russian Federation on Ukraine was allegedly the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In addition, reported on "known cases" when priests allegedly played the role of spies, gunners, fire correctors, etc.

According to Ploskonos, the Holy Spirit temple of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kosiv, closed since the outbreak of the war, previously acted illegally, and therefore there is no reason to open it now. As regards its parishioners, Ploskonos suggested that they be deported to Russia: "We are ready to facilitate them in every way... to be deported to the Russian Federation. After all, the government of the Russian Federation has adopted many different programs for citizens who feel that they are part of the ‘Russian world’. These are the ‘Program to assist the return of compatriots’, the ‘Far Eastern hectare’ program, the ‘Arctic hectare’ program, etc.”

As a reminder, earlier the community of the Nativity Cathedral of the UOC in Ivano-Frankivsk appealed to the President to stop the arbitrariness of the mayor of the city, who’d announced the transfer of their church to the OCU.

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