MP Honcharenko caught lying about UOC community in Kropyvnytskyi

Oleksii Honcharenko, an MP of the European Solidarity Party, has been caught in a lie about the UOC Church of the Annunciation in Kropyvnytskyi.

On July 28, 2022, the people's deputy wrote on his Telegram channel that there is a "Honcharenko Centre" in Kropyvnytskyi and when "the air-raid alarm sounded, there were children in class at the centre itself". 

"The administrator gathered the children and went with them to a nearby church, there is a basement and you can hide there. The people from the church did not let the administrator and the children into the basement. We quickly called all the parents and they took their children away," said the MP. He went on to ask readers, "Do you think it is necessary to write which patriarchate the church was, or did you guess it on your own?"

According to Honcharenko, his post is "an official appeal to the head of the Kirovohrad regional military and civil administration – Raykovych Andriy" with a request to "deal with this situation".

On 29 July, Ioann Vereskun, a cleric at the Annunciation Church, denied information that people were not allowed into the shelter. 

According to the priest, "when the rocket flew, our security guard saw it and started shouting to all the people who were on the temple grounds to hide in the shelter, our lower church, which is now constantly open. He started ringing the bell, then the alarm went off and in parallel there were explosions. All this went on for about ten or fifteen seconds. The guard called out to everyone and urged them to go downstairs and stay there until the alarm was over."

The priest called it "lies and nonsense" that children and adults were not allowed into the temple, as the temple was overcrowded with those fleeing the explosions. 

"I don't know what people are going for when they write such posts. But this is most likely some kind of information stuffing to weaken the unity of our society."

The priest confirmed his words with a video from surveillance cameras installed on the territory of the temple, which clearly shows a security guard calling people to the shelter and ringing a bell at the same time. 

A representative of the UOC noted that the Honcharenko Centre, which published the fake about the closed shelter in the Annunciation Church, described its information as "reliable and verified". 

"However, according to CCTV cameras, there was no such activity near the temple or in the temple courtyard. Therefore, the position of this centre is very interesting. Maybe, they wanted to raise their rating in such a way, to talk about themselves, to promote themselves? But maybe, not in such a way when our city already has enough problems and tragedies?” asks the priest.

At the same time, the authors of the Telegram channel ‘Borodataya Babushka” (“Bearded Granny”), who published a video of the UOC church in Kropyvnytskyi at the time of the shelling, called for Honcharenko to be charged with "articles for inciting interfaith hatred and subversion during the war".

The channel's authors wrote that "it is also necessary to check his so-called 'centres' for money laundering. We await a prompt reaction from Prosecutor-General Kostin".

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Oleksii Honcharenko demanded that the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra be given to the OCU.

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