In the past, the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church were mostly engaged in ideological support and justification of the Russian unprovoked war, which the Kremlin has been waging against Ukraine, now it can be safely stated that priests of the Moscow Patriarchate came to Ukraine as occupiers, along with Russian soldiers.
In March, a series of publications and videos appeared on the Internet, entitled: “In Kherson region, an Orthodox priest blessed the Russian military participating in a special operation (war, – ed.) in Ukraine.”
It is noteworthy that almost immediately the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine (the so-called UOC-MP) hurried to distance itself from the occupier priest and denied own participation in worship services with the Russian invading units.
The Kherson and Novokakhovka eparchies of the UOC-MP denied any affiliation of the “main character” of the mentioned reports to clergy, and later the same statement was published on the official website of the UOC-MP.
But, in fact, the situation turned out to be even much more interesting.
According to the UOC-MP clergy, Archpriest Valery Chernenko, who is a priest with the Novorossiysk Diocese of the Kuban Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church, arrived in Ukraine along with the Russian army’s occupation units.
It was Valery Chernenko who blessed the occupiers in Kherson region, and later, on Easter, in the Chornobayivka area near the famous airport, held a festive prayer service, “communion,” with servicemen of the Russian occupation army, and consecrated Easter offerings for them.
The Spiritual Front’s sources are not sure whether Valery Chernenko is an officially appointed military chaplain of the Russian Orthodox Church, deployed in Ukraine as part of the relevant Russian units, or whether he volunteered to performs his “mission.”
In any case, the very fact that he’s on the territory of Ukraine, performing “spiritual” practices with the participation of Russian servicemen, would only be possible if such activities were coordinated with the occupying army command and with ROC bishops.
And this, in turn, once again testifies to the Russian Orthodox Church being “bound by blood” to the criminal Putin regime as a full-blown participant in all war crimes of the ruscist occupiers in Ukraine. This means that the ROC clergy will be held accountable for every fact, every episode of Putin’s crimes against Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation.
