Metropolitan Luka (Kovalenko) of the Zaporizhia diocese of the UOC (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) during the Grand Entrance at the Liturgy on January 11, 2023, commemorated Russian Patriarch Kirill.
According to the official website of the diocese, on this day Luka presided over the all-diocesan Liturgy in the Holy Intercession Cathedral of Zaporizhia.
Father Andrii Pinchuk, a cleric with the Dnipropetrovsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP), announced this on his Telegram channel.
“Russian world has shown its grin again. Putin lovers again desecrate the churches of the UOC (MP). Gundyaev’s bootlickers are gathering again for a Sabbath. Because for them, there is neither Ukraine nor any of us. They are waiting for ‘liberators’ and they are waiting for a ‘Russian world’. It is said that this audio is the altar recording of the January 11, 2023 service of Luka of Zaporizhia, metropolitan and member of the UOC (MP) synod. No further examinations are required. Luka has told on himself. The UOC is a part of the Moscow Gundyaev-patriarchate,” Father Andrii concluded.
It is worth noting that volunteer Roman Sinitsyn, at the outset of the full-scale invasion, accused Metropolitan Luka of the UOC MP of collaborating with the occupiers. It was Kovalenko’s statements about Ukrainians who allegedly caused problems to the so-called “humanitarian convoy” that helped Russian propaganda to justify the attacks on the civilian population in Ukraine.
It should be recalled that on December 1, 2022, the NSDC considered multiple reports about the ties of certain religious circles in Ukraine with the aggressor power. The appropriate decisions were made at the meeting. The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience shall ensure within a two-month period, in accordance with Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, a religious examination of the Statute on the Administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the presence of a church-canonical ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, and take necessary legal measures if required.
