OSCE concerned about frequent thefts in UOC churches of Odessa region
February 11, 2017. Representatives of the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine initiated a meeting with the dean of the Belgorod-Dniester district, Archpriest Rustik Vykhodtsev, during which frequent cases of theft and vandalism in Orthodox churches of the district were discussed, as reports the Union of the Orthodox Journalists website.
OSCE observers in Odessa Cornelius Nolan and Aram Harutyunyan, as well as assistant of the security department Igor Solovyev, considered the inter-confessional situation that prevailed in the city and the region and discussed issues of cooperation of the Odessa diocese with local authorities and law enforcement agencies.
As reported earlier, there have been five thefts in the churches of the UOC in the Odessa region since the beginning of 2017. Offencers go beyond theft and commit acts of vandalism. No suspect has been arrested so far.