Press secretary of Vinnytsia Eparchy: RSA official violates court decision

Deacon Andrei Balan. Photo: NASH TV channel

The decisions of the head of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration Igor Saletsky on the illegal re-registration of communities provoke new seizures of churches.

The press secretary of the Vinnytsia Eparchy, Deacon Andrei Balan, spoke about this, commenting for the NASH TV channel on the reasons that forced the Vinnytsia believers to stand in prayer before the building of the regional administration.

“The last straw was that in the Murovani Kurylivtsi Deanery of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Mohyliv-Podilsky Eparchy, Saletsky decided to re-register another village of Snitkiv. The Administrative Court of Kyiv dated July 30, 2021, forbade him to carry out any registration actions in those specific villages. Igor Saletsky is a person who ignores the decision of the court, ignores the requests of people on the ground. This is a problem not only for our Vinnytsia Eparchy, but today it is a painful wound for the entire region. Only in the Vinnytsia Eparchy, 25 churches were illegally re-registered, in the Tulchin Eparchy – 14, the same number in Mohyliv-Podilsky. More than 40 churches were re-registered in the Vinnytsia region by this person. The main thing is that he considers the minutes of the meeting of the villagers rather than the religious community. People, our believers, do not want to change their subordination.”

According to Deacon Andrei Balan, believers have repeatedly conveyed their demands to the authorities, but they have not been heard.

“We want peace both here and in our country, we want peace ... But we cannot understand why the administration cannot change its official. We wouldn't come here if everything was fine. People want to come here. It’s not we who call them – they ask us: when will the inaction of the authorities change?"

In the future, if there are no changes, prayer meetings can be prepared in advance and be much more numerous.

The UOJ spoke in detail about the reason and the course of the prayer standing near the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration.

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