Old people and children are beaten: Radicals brutally attack UOC procession

The radicals hit the woman with a cross, she lost consciousness. Photo: Screenshot of Maria Stanko's video page on Facebook

On April 29, 2022, radicals attacked believers during the procession of the UOC. They hit and knocked down two women, one of whom lost consciousness from the blow. The attackers also broke crosses and banners and threw eggs at believers. All this happened in front of and with the tacit approval of the "priests" of the OCU.

The religious procession was organized by the believers of Rakhiv city, who wanted to walk around the entire Transcarpathian region with prayers for peace in Ukraine, for the army and soldiers. On the fourth day, the participants in the procession came to the village of Yasynia, where an angry crowd of OCU supporters was already waiting for the faithful.

“They blocked the road for us, started throwing eggs at us, hitting us with sticks, and the priests of the OCU stood behind them, watching all this and smiling,” says Maria Stanko on her Facebook page.

According to eyewitnesses, the radicals hit one of the believers with a cross so that she lost consciousness, after which the participants in the procession called the police, who organized a safe corridor and, under guard, took the UOC parishioners out by bus.

“The OCU has shown its true self! They broke crosses, smashed icons, beat women and children. Christ was beaten with sticks on Friday <…> they beat us too, threw eggs at us and spat. We have suffered today at least a little bit for Christ, and we are happy,” Maria wrote.

“We were, are and will be faithful to the UOC, to God, we will die a martyr's death for our faith, but we will not backslide into schism. Look, the whole world, how Ukrainians are beating Ukrainians, it’s a shame,” Anatoliy Vachilya, a participant in the procession with the cross, said on his Facebook page.

Having studied the video materials of witnesses, police officers opened a criminal case.

Recall that in March 2022, the Yasynia town demanded that the Verkhovna Rada ban the activities of the UOC.

The UOJ also reported that on April 29, 2022, supporters of the OCU tried to seize the church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Yasynia, but the police who arrived were able to push the raiders away from the church.

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