In Lviv, one of the parishioners of the UOC (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) said it was “true Ukrainians” who had allegedly started the war. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, suggested that many of the representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate had been recruited by Russia’s FSB security service.
The top security official, who spoke on the air of the national telethon, said that some of these “parishioners” had already been exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war, Channel 24 reports.
“This is not about believers. You can go to church, pray to God. You don’t go to FSB operatives to pray, do you?” Danilov said.
The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine urged believers to go to churches that have no relation to the FSB and that “everything will be fine.”
It should be recalled that a picket was held in Lviv outside the St. Volodymyr Church of the UOC MP in the Sykhiv district. One of the activists attending the event said the Moscow Patriarchate’s church had no place in Lviv.
After that, UOC MP parishioners got into an altercation with the activist, telling her their church had nothing to do with Russia. “But who started the war? Who started the war? Ukrainians are sincere!” said one of the parishioners.
It is worth adding that on the same day, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi announced that the St. Volodymyr’s Church in Sykhiv would be dismantled. After all, it was a build without a relevant permit from municipal authorities. It was outside this church that the said altercation took place on the morning of April 4.
The situation with the church on Bobanycha Street is more complicated. After all, the property there belongs to the community, which has already verbally renounced the Moscow Patriarchate. The mayor explained that there are two options regarding this temple:
It officially becomes a Ukrainian church;
It goes through the nationalization process.
The mayor of Lviv assured the public that all necessary paperwork had already been prepared to this end.
On April 9, Lviv residents are gathering for a peaceful rally regarding the UOC (MP) issue.
