A feud between the two main confessions in Ukraine, the Orthodox branches of the Moscow and Kyiv patriarchates, turned bloody on Aug. 12.
An official from the Moscow-controlled church reportedly attacked a priest from a rival, Kyiv-controlled church with a knife in the Cherkassy Oblast city of Korsun-Shevchenkivsky. The victim, Rostyslav Bylo, is a priest in the Orthodox Church Kyiv Patriarchate. His alleged attacker is Mykhailo Lysenko, a sexton in the Moscow Orthodox Church.
Lysenko allegedly stabbed the clergyman eight
times in the head and the neck, according to police.
The attack took place as tensions are
escalating between the two churches as many parishioners in town have switched
from the Moscow-backed church to the Kyiv-aligned faith, a trend first noted
last year following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, starting in March
2014.
Early in 2014, polls showed that the number of
Kyiv Orthodox Church parishioners exceeded the number of Moscow Church faithful
for the first time since 1992, when the Ukrainian Orthodox split into two rival
branches, one independent and one Moscow-controlled.
While 70 percent of Ukrainians consider themselves
Orthodox, 25 percent prefer the Moscow Patriarchate, and 32 percent favor the
Kyiv Orthodox churches, according to the Kyiv-based policy center Razumkov
Center in 2014.
The Moscow Orthodox Church in Ukraine is
directly controlled by Russian Patriarch Kiril. He is known to be a friend and
ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Korsun-Shevchenkivsky, a city of 18,000 people
where the bloody attack took place, has three churches of Moscow allegiance,
and only one Kyiv Orthodox church.
The attack took place when the victim, Bylo,
was resting on the bank of a river with church choir singers. The group was
resting after performing a funeral service earlier in the day when the attacker
appeared.
Lysenko, the suspected attacker, rushed at the
priest with a knife in his hand, shouting “For Rus! For the Orthodox faith!”
according to the victim and witnesses.
“I stood rooted on the spot,” Bylo told the
Kyiv Post. “I was so shocked that I couldn’t even move to defend myself.”
Fortunately for Lysenko, the wounds weren’t
deep. He survived the attack with minor injuries.
The police, called by witnesses, arrived and
disarmed the attacker.
Lysenko was charged with causing injury and
put on a travel ban till the end of the trial. He is facing a fine of Hr 850 or
two years in prison if found guilty. He couldn’t be reached for comment.
The Moscow Orthodox Church defended its
officer. Their official statement said the attack was actually an accident.
Both participants, according to the statement, were drunk and had a fight.
During the altercation, Bylo fell and hurt himself on shards of glass from a
vodka bottle.
“All attempts to present this banal domestic
conflict between two drunk people as a religious hate crime is a provocation,”
reads the Moscow church’s online statement.
Local police say the conflict could have been
a result of enmity between the two men. Bylo denied this allegation. He claims
that Lysenko attacked him on religious grounds. The priest said that many
people in Korsun-Shevchenkivsky left the Moscow church for the Kyiv church over
the last two years.
The fear of hatred between the two churches
getting bloody first arose in July when a priest of Moscow Patriarchate church
was murdered in Kyiv. He was shot twice in the head. None of his possessions were
taken.
A spokesman for the Moscow Orthodox Church in
Ukraine and Archbishop of Cherkasy declined to comment for this article.
A bishop of Cherkasy with the Kyiv
Patriarchate told the Kyiv Post that the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate are
angry because Ukrainian parishioners are leaving their churches for ones with
allegiance to Kyiv.
“They are angry because there is nothing they
can do about it,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
