Filaret awards “good Samaritan” assisting raids of the UOC temples

The Kyiv Patriarchate awarded the head of Vishnevets United Territorial Community (UTC) of Zbarazh region, Ternopil region, Vladimir Kravets with the Order of St. Vladimir Equal to the Apostles, 2nd Class. As the UOJ correspondent reports, Kravets is known in the locality as a politician who promotes church raiding of the UOC temples by schismatics.

According to the website of Ternopoliany, this is not the first award that the UTC head and leader of the local political force "Good Samaritan" receives from schismatics. Before that, there was the same order of the third degree. This year the award was presented on behalf of the "patriarch" by the local representative of the UOC-KP Svyatoslav Shvets – one of the direct invaders of the Holy Peter and Paul church in the village of Kinakhovtsy. He thanked Kravets for "services to the Church, patronage and assistance to believers in difficult situations."

Local parishioners of the UOC have their own memories of "believers who receive help" from Kravets. The newspaper "Power of the Word", controlled by him, provided media support for the illegal seizure of the UOC temple in Kinakhovtsy, calling it "the transition of the community". Despite scandals, this outlet is considered one of the effective levers of influence on the local media sector and, as a result, on the political balance in the region.

The Kravets-led community embraced nine settlements of Zbarazh district in 2015. In one of them – Butin village – the Kyiv Patriarchate captured St. Michael's temple of the UOC as early as 2014. The UOC parish in neighboring Kinakhovtsy became the target of raiders already in 2017.

The UOC community in the village of Butin has already won a cassation on the suit against re-registering it in the cell of the Kyiv Patriarchate. The same scheme was followed by raiders in Kinakhovtsy, registering the charter of the UOC community with a change of the denomination’s jurisdiction in favor of the UOC-KP. These actions will also be challenged in court.