Relatives of fallen soldier demand that OCU not speculate on his name

An UOC priest accompanying the vehicle carrying the body of the fallen warrior. Photo: a screenshot of the Podhaitsy community’s FB page

Olha Harasim, the sister of the deceased warrior Dmytro Slesaruk, from Volyn, called on the OCU not to incite religious hatred and not to spread lies about her brother's funeral.

"We, the family of the fallen warrior Slesaruk Dmytro, want to refute the false evidence about the location of the funeral service for our Hero. There was no prohibition on conducting the funeral service for the fallen warrior in the church of Dibrova village, and the decision to hold the funeral rite at the Holy Protection Cathedral was made by the family. We ask not to disturb the memory of our Hero and not to use the situation and his good name as a tool for religious discord," Olha wrote on her Facebook page.

The Volyn Eparchy of the UOC made a similar appeal to the OCU.

They commented on the false publication of the Volyn Eparchy of the OCU, which claimed that a UOC priest in the village of Dibrova refused to open the church for the funeral service for the warrior, and the family was forced to transport the body to the neighbouring village of Kivertsi.

The decision to hold the funeral service for the warrior in the OCU church in Kivertsi was made by the Slesaruk family, and it was not due to the refusal of the UOC priest in Dibrova to conduct the service. Moreover, when the procession with the warrior's body arrived in Dibrova, the UOC priest was ringing the bells for the repose of the soul.

"Why do priests of the OCU invent and spread such things, we can only guess," the eparchy says, stating that writing lies and inciting religious hatred using the death of the fallen hero is "unworthy of a Christian, let alone a priest".

As earlier reported, the OCU cathedral in Lutsk refused to conduct the funeral service for a military man because he was "not a Hero".

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