Odessa, April 11 (Navigator, Victoria Litovchenko) – The secretary of the Odessa diocese of the UOC MP, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, left for Moscow to avoid possible persecution.
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At the beginning of April, another Odessa priest, Archpriest Oleg Mokryak, left for Russia. SBU officers visited his house with a search. Mokryak suggested that the real purpose of the visit was to detain him. According to him, he is charged with holding a memorial service for the murdered Berkut employees and communicating with the leader of the Odessa Anti-Maidan Anton Davidchenko. Therefore, he chose to flee the country.
As Archpriest Andrei Novikov stated in the press, he was threatened with the same scenario of persecution.
“I received a call from the same investigator who recently came for Archpriest Oleg Mokryak with SBU special forces. He said that I was a witness in the case of pro-Russian activist Anton Davidchenko, and they were calling me for questioning in Kyiv,” the 048 portal quotes the secretary of the diocese.
In addition, Novikov noted, investigators were interested in his telephone conversations with a number of pro-Russian activists.
“I want to serve in my church, with my bishop, with my parishioners, to be with my relatives. I am a native Odessa resident, but now I feel like an exile,” said the priest, who is now in Moscow.