A priest who took part in the clashes on the Maidan identified

A priest who made it on to the front page of today's “Financial Time” because of his active participation in the yesterday’s fight on the Maidan doesn’t belong to any of the official denominations.

Let us give you some context. Dozens of remaining demonstrators set tires on fire on Kyiv's main square Maidan Nezalezhnosti and started fights with municipal workers and Kyiv-1 and Kyiv-2 military battalions to protest the government's attempt to free the city's main road for traffic. Clashes were rather harsh. Please, read more on KyivPost

Among the fighting protesters media highlighted a man in cassock who was very active. RISU identified the man – his name is Mykola Belej, but he calls himself bishop John of Lutsk of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. But it’s not true. He doesn’t belong to any of the official Ukrainian denominations.

In the early 1990s he was a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate and was suspended (or defrocked). Later he joined the marginal sect of Orthodox origin which consisted of several suspended or self-proclaimed hierarchs and was named a bishop of Lutsk. But he doesn’t have a parish and religious community . Mykola Belej was present on the Maidan from the very beginning and was always in the role of cleric giving a lot of interviews.