Collaborating priest of the UOC-MP runs for office on Putin's party ticket in Zaporizhia
This information is presented in a new article by "Slidstvo.Info" titled "Former Minister, Priest, Producer: Russia Publishes Lists of Candidates for Fake Elections in the Occupied Zaporizhia Region," as reported by Informator.
The UOC-MP priest, Anatoliy Zyhar, who listed the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church as his place of work, serves in the village of Pidhirne in the Zaporizhia region.
The biography of Zyhar on the church's page states that he decided to become a priest during his military service, where he took part in combat operations in the late 1980s.
However, upon returning home, he went to work at the Zaporizhia Titanium-Magnesium Plant and only later attended the Zaporizhia Theological Seminary.
Father Zyhar has the "Red Star" order and the "For Courage" medal.
From the early days of the full-scale war, he remained silent about his connections with the occupiers. He actively maintained a Facebook page, where he made posts about peace and prayers for Ukraine.
The priest managed to serve as a deputy of the Vasylivka District Council in the V and VI convocations. And now he has decided to become a deputy again, but this time representing "United Russia".
In August 2022, collaborator Nataliya Romanichenko (self-proclaimed head of the military-civil administration in the occupied Vasylivka) began issuing Russian birth certificates to Ukrainian children. Anatoliy Zyhar joined the event and invited parents to have their children baptized in the ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) temple.
Romanichenko appointed Zyhar as the new rector of the Holy Protection Church of the OCU (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) in Vasylivka. Part of the church property was taken away in an unknown direction.
"I was informed that the so-called Mayor Nataliya Romanichenko handed over the aforementioned church for use to Anatoliy Zyhar. In turn, the 'newly appointed rector' decided to remove the church utensils from the temple," wrote Roman Sadovyi, the rector of the Holy Protection Church of the OCU in Vasylivka.
