Chernihiv official can be removed from office for merit letter to UOC rep

Head of the Chernihiv Regional Council Elena Dmitrenko. Photo: newch.tv

The head of the Chernihiv Regional Council, Elena Dmitrenko, awarded a letter of merit to Archpriest Miron Kovalevsky, the Dean of the Horodnia District of the Chernihiv Eparchy of the UOC. Some activists called this award criminal and demanded that Dmitrenko be removed from office.

Angry posts on their Facebook pages were written by Svoboda activist and head of the “ATO Brotherhood”, Vladimir Briukhovetsky, Poroshenko's supporter Alexander Yasenchuk, and the order bearer of the OCU, journalist Rostislav Martyniuk.

The latter called to begin the procedure for removing Elena Dmitrenko from the post of head of the regional council. In his post, he called the priests of the UOC “stupid Muscovites”.

None of those who were outraged at the award wrote anything about the person awarded, made no claims against Father Miron. Instead, they repeated the usual libelous accusations against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Fr Miron Kovalevsky has been respected in Horodnia for many years, he restored the local old St. Nicholas Church. The priest's authority is evidenced, for example, by the fact that he became "Person of the Year 2004" according to the results of a survey in Horodnia and the district.

As reported, the OCU Synod accused the UOC of inciting religious hatred and seizing churches.

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