Greek Catholic priest Tykhon Serhiy Kulbaka, a native of Donetsk who became famous throughout Ukraine after being captured by separatists, announced the beginning of an exorcism ritual aimed at Putin.
Fr. Tykhon wrote about this on Facebook.
"I would like to inform you that I have decided to use my status as a priest of the United, Holy, Conciliar Church, to whom I have the grace and privilege to be for 30 years. As of today, I am committed to performing the Exorcism Ritual daily aimed at Vladimir Putin. I believe that an evil spirit may inspire the actions of this man," the priest wrote.
Exorcism aims to cast out demons or free them from demonic influence by the power of spiritual authority that Jesus gave to His Church.
"I ask the Merciful God
- either to free this person from demonic influence and make them renounce evil and stand up for good,
- or "destroy such a devil bodily so that the soul may be saved in the day of the Lord," wrote the priest.
"I will be happy if one of the fellow priests joins me. Also, I would be delighted if some of the faithful supported us, the priests, in the way available to them (specific prayers are available to the laity with requests for deliverance from the evil spirit)," said Serhiy Kulbaka.
Fr. Tykhon Kulbaka was captured on July 4, 2014. He spent 12 days in captivity. After the militants learned that the priest had diabetes, they gave him white bread and very little water, which is dangerous to people with diabetes. The priest had to drink water from the toilet tank. On the 12th day, the priest was taken to the field and left in his car. As it turned out, Mufti Said Izmagilov played an active role in the priest's release. Father Tykhon did not say anything about the captivity for three months, fearing for the safety of his parishioners. As soon as most of them left the occupied territory, he was able to tell about those events.