Svoboda deputy admits his involvement in seizure of UOC church in Kolomyia

The head of the Svoboda regional organization Mikhail Ivanochko participates in church raiding in Kolomyia and proposes to force the UOC priests to prove their loyalty to the state. The people's deputy of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional council said this in an interview with the edition "Vgolos".

"A few months ago, we with activists raised the issue of the release of the Annunciation Church from the power of Moscow priests. It is clear that the so-called clergymen did not want to retreat. And they were actually kicked out from there by representatives of the public and activists," the deputy said.

The Svoboda member noted that they managed to "point out their place" to the priests of the UOC and they retreated: "For several weeks we went there to every service to control the situation. Everything is already quiet: the service is celebrated by our Greek Catholic chaplains, who are supporters of nationalists."

"I would "put"all the Moscow priests on a polygraph. It would be nice if they went through a "lie detector". Do you think any of them will agree to this? It should be like this. Whoever is not afraid of anything will go through this procedure painlessly. Therefore, they should go through it and prove their loyalty," the politician said.

Also, the people's deputy expressed confidence that "Moskals and Yids" are responsible for the Holodomor, and "Irina Farion, for example, passed a polygraph and proved to the whole world that she was right".

The nationalist is convicted that the refusal to prove their loyalty, following Irina Farion’s example, would mean that they are "agents of Moscow".

The Svoboda member said that he sought to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and expel priests even by force, and participation in the events in Kolomyia prompted him to initiate an appeal of the Ivano-Frankivsk regional council demanding that the UOC priests should be checked for their contacts with the FSB.

As reported by the UOJ, "chaplains" of the UGCC forcefully seized the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin in Kolomyia, built by the Orthodox 113 years before the first Uniates appeared.