Who jokes about "eaten" Zelensky

Archpriest Volodymyr Mandziuk, doused with green antiseptic. Collage: O. Bomko

In recent days, photos of a UOC priest covered in green antiseptic have been circulating on social media, accompanied by the following mocking caption: “In the city of Stryi, MP priests ate Zelensky in front of their parishioners and left traces of this atrocity. I’ve lived for 53 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

First, let us explain what is depicted in the photos. In May 2022, radicals tracked down a UOC community in Stryi and broke into its "home" worship service. Archpriest Volodymyr Mandziuk had his face doused with green antiseptic, and the words "Death to the occupiers" were written on his car.

We do not know the fate of this parish. But it was almost certainly closed down, as were all the others in Lviv region. Today, UOC believers gather there for worship services under the strictest secrecy. And these are not mere precautions. If discovered, large-scale harassment, persecution, and intimidation campaigns begin immediately.

This bears a strong resemblance to the beginning of the Holocaust in Germany: the same defamation in the media, bans imposed by the authorities, and widespread hatred across society. There is no doubt: if it were permitted, UOC believers in Galicia would be treated the same way Jews were treated in Germany in the 1930s–1940s.

What is particularly striking here is that the author of the mocking text about the "eaten Zelensky," Oleksii Bomko, is the rabbi of the Jewish community in Chernivtsi.

Historical memory is short.

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