AFU soldiers call on authorities to stop persecution of Sumy bishop

Metropolitan Yevlogy of Sumy and an AFU soldier. Photo: portal-pravoslavie.sumy.ua

The website of the Sumy Eparchy has published a letter by Ukrainian worrier Oleh Volkov and his fellow servicemen, in which the soldiers demand that the Ukrainian authorities stop the criminal prosecution of Metropolitan Yevlogy of Sumy.

In the letter, the military men claim that the case against Metropolitan Yevlogy is "sewn with white threads" and that the bishop himself is a true patriot of Ukraine who condemned the Russian invasion in the first days.

"The war declared by the authorities against the UOC is simply wild and barbaric! It is a violation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of the UOC believers! Which are millions, and quite a few of them are standing in defence of Ukraine! Many believers and clerics of the now-persecuted UOC have already died! But it is not enough for the authorities to hunt our bishops in the NKVD manner, trampling their own conscience, law and dignity. They fabricate criminal cases with proletarian fervour and threaten to imprison them," the servicemen wrote.

The letter emphasises that Metropolitan Yevlogy did not incite interreligious hatred, unlike adherents of the OCU, who have generated enmity in society by seizing churches and insulting believers of the UOC.

"We ask the authorities to come to their senses! And not to divide the people of Ukraine in such difficult times for the state. And to get off the hierarchs of the UOC! God cannot be mocked. By persecuting the Church, you have committed treason against Ukraine, because you have violated the basic law – the Constitution of Ukraine. You are criminals! And the time will come when you have to answer for everything before the law and before God! We, military men of the AFU, loyal to the UOC despise you, God-fighters! We will return! Fear," the servicemen added.

As reported, Metropolitan Yevlogy of Sumy was handed a notice of suspicion of "inciting hatred".

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