On June 19, 2023, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine visited Military Unit A0543 in Kyiv region, where in the church in honor of the holy great martyr Yuriy the Victorious, he prayed for Ukraine’s victory over the Russian invaders, for our soldiers – defenders of the Motherland, and for the coming of a just peace.
The press service of OCU reported this on its website.
The vicar of the Saint Nicholas Men’s Monastery, Archimandrite Arseniy (Pozharny), local clergy, Brigadier General Oleh Hut, unit commander Colonel Serhii Yevstafiev, other commanders, officers, and personnel of the unit, as well as local officials, prayed together with the Primate of the Autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
After the prayer, His Beatitude addressed the audience with a speech
“Today, first of all, we offered prayers to God with thanksgiving for His benevolence to us during the trials of war. We feel God’s support in resisting the aggressor who came to destroy us as a nation, to dissolve us so that the Ukrainian people would cease to exist. But we preserved and persevered our identity: Church, language, and culture. In 1991, God gifted us the restoration of independence – the dream of our ancestors, but not everyone realized and appreciated it. So now we are paying a very high cost for freedom. But we have something to defend and something to be proud of, so we will defend our only common home – Ukraine – from the occupiers, and may the Lord inspire each of us to this end,” Metropolitan Epifaniy said.
His Beatitude Bishop also presented the church with an icon of the Resurrection of Christ and honored Ukrainian soldiers with high church awards.
