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March 26, 2019 – The Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) published a summary of issues discussed during the meeting with the OSCE representatives on its Facebook page: “within the framework of the meeting of the secretary of the Diocese, Archimandrite Nikita, with the representatives of the OSCE Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the following issues were considered:

- the largest number of opened criminal cases concerning violations of the rights of believers is in Zastavnovsky district of the Chernivtsi region;
- persecution and bullying of children in schools;
– a carousel of church provocateurs;
- participation of the “Right Sector” as “physical assistance” for the transition of the parish to the OCU;

1. Particular attention was devoted to events in Zastavni district, where representatives of the authorities and the newly formed religious organization of the OCU continue to fuel religious hatred. This is especially noticeable in villages: Vaslovivtsi, Tovtry, Dobrynivtsi, Zadubrivka, Goroshivtsi, Boyanchuk.

2. Archimandrite Nikita informed the representatives of the mission that two clerics of the Kyiv Patriarchate / OCU (Vitaliy Menzak and Roman Hryshchuk), together with a group of “priests” of the OCU with media support of journalists from certain “independent” mass media, visit on a weekly basis the villages of the Chernivtsi region, provocate, and conduct political and church propaganda in front of the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

3. There are some isolated facts – bullying (harassment by teachers of children in schools) in the villages of Berezhnytsia, Vaslovivtsi, and others. The reason for harassment is that the children and their parents are believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

4. Village Ryngach: representatives of the “Right Sector” provided the physical “help” to carry out illegal meetings of the territorial community, which aimed to transfer the canonical parish to the OCU.”

 

Sources:

Facebook page of the Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese UOC – publication of 26 March 2019

 

Related Publication:

• March 26, 2019 – The Administrative Court of Kiev closed the case on the competence of the President of Ukraine to interfere in activities of the church and religious organizations.
• March 13, 2019 – A report on the situation about the human rights in Ukraine was published by the UN shortly before the presidential elections in Ukraine.
• Feb. 18, 2019 – Representative of Ukrainian Orthodox Church appeals to international organization over facts of mass violations of rights of believers in Ukraine