Victim of OCU attack in Cherkasy: I'd rather be killed than change my faith

Oleh Slobodianyk, a victim of an attack by OCU raiders on a monastery in Cherkasy. Photo: a video screenshot of the YouTube channel "Cherkasy Blahovisnyk"

Oleh Slobodianyk, a 76-year-old parishioner of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos, appealed to the international community from his hospital room, where he went after being beaten by OCU raiders during the seizure of the shrine. The man's appeal was published on Cherkasy Eparchy’s YouTube channel.

Slobodianyk said that for many years he had been acquainted with those who beat him in the monastery.

"Hirelings Kukharchuk, Zaychuk, all those guys I've known for very many years, they committed lawlessness. They started beating all the people, women, and priests, I was hit on the head, then they broke my leg in two places and I was hospitalized. I have nothing to fear. I appeal to the police, to the SBU. You were standing there, you saw all this," he said. “You took an oath that you would protect the people, not the government or presidents. The Constitution does not protect us. I want you to pay attention to Ukraine and hear me, an ordinary citizen of Ukraine".

The man also called on Orthodox Christians from all over the world to pay attention to the violence and persecution that believers are subjected to in Ukraine.

According to him, even after the beating, he continued to receive numerous threats.

"They want to destroy us so that there is no Orthodox faith in Ukraine. All this is done by the hands of 'patriots', although I would not call them that. I have already received threats that they will kill, bleed, and slaughter me. <...> I have always been a patriot. I am not a Russian, I do not work for Russia, I do not work for Putin. I live in Cherkasy; I have been going and will go to the Orthodox Church. And I'd rather be killed than change my faith. Let’s be patient. Fear not, they intimidate us, they only want us to submit," the believer added.

As reported, in Cherkasy, medics kicked out into the street victims of the attack on the monastery.

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