UOC laity to Zelensky: Radicals' threats – deliberate incitement to hatred

Right Sector activists in Lviv. Photo: facebook.com/Praviy-Sector-Lvivshchyna

Intimidation of believers of the UOC and disregard of their legal rights is a sign of deliberate loosening of the situation in the country. This is stated in an appeal of the public union "Miriane", sent to President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.

The reason for the appeal was the recent events in the Lviv region, where representatives of the "Right Sector" oppose the construction of new churches of the UOC, intended to replace the seized ones, and threaten the benefactors who assist in this matter. Radicals threaten with organizaing new actions, and believers see this as an attempt to inflame sectarian strife.

“We, the laity of the UOC, appeal to the Guarantor of the Constitution, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, so that he defends the constitutional rights of believers of the UOC and preserves peace and order in Ukrainian society. <...> Any provocative statements regarding the laity of the UOC for the purpose of intimidation, disregard for the legitimate rights of believers is a sign of deliberate loosening and destabilization in the state,” says the message of the "Miriane", published in the organization’s tg-channel on Friday, October 8.

The believers stressed there is a possibility of solving this situation in a legal way, while its instigators should be held accountable.

In the text of the appeal to Vladimir Zelensky, they indicated specific facts related to the actions and statements of radicals against the UOC, and called for the necessary measures to be taken to prevent further incitement of religious enmity and hatred.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Lviv Right Sector openly threatened to take "radical measures" against entrepreneur Andrey Biba, a philanthropist, thanks to whom 10 churches of the UOC were built in the western regions of Ukraine in place of the ones illegally seized by the OCU. The radicals voiced their threats and demands at one of the BRSM-Nafta gas stations owned by the entrepreneur. Also, members of the "Right Sector" confirmed their participation in the seizure of 50 UOC temples, threatened with new actions against the UOC and said that the time had come for more attacks on the "Church of the Moscow Patriarchate".

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