Expert explains whose estimates of size of UOC cross procession are true

The Cross Procession of the UOC in Kyiv, 27.07.21. Photo: TG channel of Bishop Victor (Kotsaba)

The data announced by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the number of participants in the procession in Kyiv are closest to the truth, said political expert Daniil Bogatyrev, who himself was at the Great Cross Procession – 2021, dedicated to the celebration of the Day of Rus’ Baptism, on the air of the "1Kozak" channel.

He recalled that, according to the Church's estimates, this year about 350 thousand believers came to the cross procession. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and resources disloyal to the UOC name a much smaller number of participants – about 50 thousand people, and some representatives of the OCU speak of only 20 thousand.

“To avoid all sorts of manipulations, I decided to make my own calculation, which is quite simple: by calculating the area on which the participants in the cross procession were, calculating the approximate number of people per square meter of this area and, accordingly, how many people walked in the column.

When the head of the column was already at the gates of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the tail was still on the Vladimir Hill. The distance between these two objects along the streets where the cross procession was going is 3 kilometers 100 meters. The average width of the road is approximately 30 meters. To find out the area, you need to multiply the length of the road by its width: it turns out 93 thousand square meters. You need to proceed from the density of 3-4 people per square meter – if you look at the aerial pictures of the procession, you will easily see that, on average, there was such density. And then it is quite easy: we multiply the number of 3-4 people by the number of square meters 93,000. If conditionally 3.5 people – the number of 325 thousand people, if 4 people – then 375 thousand,” explained Daniil Bogatyrev.

He stated that the estimates of the UOC are just between these two figures, and the data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and representatives of the OCU are “very far from the truth, that is, this is an obvious underestimation of the number of participants in the cross procession”.

Earlier, the UOJ published a video demonstrating the full scale of the prayer procession of the UOC in Kyiv on July 27.

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