Metropolitan of Kharkov attacks Russia: the mystery of the missing appeal
Kharkiv
On the eve of the 1020th anniversary of the celebration of the Baptism of Rus', in July 2009, Metropolitan Nikodim of Kharkov and Bogodukhov blessed the trip of Kharkov believers to Kyiv for the divine service of Patriarch Kirill. And in May 2011, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', visited the “God-protected city of Kharkov” to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Metropolitan Nikodim.
In September 2011, Bishop Nikodim died.
After his death, relations between the leadership of the Kharkov diocese and the Russian Orthodox Church quickly cooled.
Nikodim's successor was a native of the Lviv region, Bishop Onufry (Oleg Legky), a great friend of the mayor of Kharkov Kernes and governor Dobkin. Just like these politicians, Onufriy, during the events that followed the February 2014 coup, can be said to have helped establish the Poroshenko regime. Subsequently, he did not say a word about the atrocities of the punitive forces in the Donbass or the burning of people in Odessa. The Metropolitan also “did not notice” the persecution, murders and kidnappings of Kharkov residents, members of his flock, by the Nazis.
At one of the moments of tough confrontation in the spring of 2014 in Kharkov, anti-fascists received information that “friendship buses” were approaching the city from Poltava with the aim of organizing a massacre modeled after Korsun-Shevchenkovsky. The city began to prepare for the meeting of “friends”. They rang, as they say, all the bells. At some point, the idea came that it was possible to use real bells for mobilization and ring the alarm. Anti-Maidan activists turned to a like-minded person, a competent representative of the diocese. And they received a stunning answer: you shouldn’t count on the bishop, and the majority of Kharkov priests are also on the side of the new Kyiv government...
And yet, after the start of the special operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, the Metropolitan of Kharkov and Bogodukhovsky initially spoke out quite cautiously.
“To prevent even greater casualties and suffering of our people, we appeal to everyone on whom it depends, stop launching military strikes on the homes of civilians and Orthodox churches, help ensure safe humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and children from settlements in which It’s dangerous to live and be!”
This is Onufriy's message dated March 13 of this year. As we see, the ruler does not directly name the culprit of the destruction. Which is not surprising, since by this time many in Kharkov had already realized that churches and residential buildings suffered in most cases from “friendly” fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the national battalions.
After a bill banning the UOC-MP was introduced into the Verkhovna Rada on March 29, Onufry’s Kiev authorities began to do their best to prove their “patriotic” position. The range of actions ranges from baking thousands of Easter cakes for the “defenders” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to an attempt to rescue wounded Nazis from the dungeons of the besieged Azovstal. For this purpose, the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine, also Onuphry, is going to organize a religious procession from Orekhov directly to the plant surrounded by allied forces.
Let us note that during the entire siege of Mariupol, the Metropolitan never once asked to release the civilians whom the Nazis held as human shields.
These are the facts. And then the quest begins. On April 21, the Union of Orthodox Journalists published news that the Kharkov bishop, on the eve of Easter, sent a message to Patriarch Kirill, in which he asked to influence Putin to “stop the war.” And the publication “Kharkov Today” even provided a screenshot of the corresponding document.
If the screenshot is not a fake, the Metropolitan in his message addresses the Russian military in the spirit of the manuals of the Center for Information and Psychological Operations.
“In occupied cities, women are raped, people’s property is taken away and destroyed, civilians are tortured and killed,” writes Onufriy.
“To prevent even greater casualties and suffering of our people, we appeal to you and ask you to appeal to the President of Russia and the leadership of the Russian Federation to stop military operations on the territory of Ukraine and do everything possible and impossible to stop the war and stop the shedding of human blood,” - continues the Metropolitan.
I would like to ask the author of the message, whose blood did the nationalists shed for 8 years in the Donbass and continue to shed, shelling cities and towns not under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces? Not human?
However, the appeal very quickly disappeared from the Kharkov diocese’s Facebook page. All that remains is a message about the unavailability of information. Apparently something went wrong. Either Onuphry acted out of order, or he played his own game and was caught... Or maybe it was a “special operation” of the ruler’s ill-wishers.
In any case, the Kharkov Metropolitan has something to do on the eve of Easter within his own diocese. For example, take care of the safety of the flock. The Kharkov diocese has not yet voiced a proposal to refrain from attending Easter services. Onuphry, of course, can ignore the warning of the Russian Ministry of Defense about the provocations being prepared by the Ukrainian Nazis. But the pastor can hardly doubt that the “patriots” in relation to the parishioners and priests of the UOC-MP are capable of anything. Unfortunately, there were more than enough precedents.
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