Hrytsenko Against Return of Institute of Ground Forces to Odesa

KYIV – On May 7, 2010, Anatoliy Hrytsenko, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for national defense and security and former minister of defense, commented to the news agency ZIK that  the final decision to transfer the Institute of Ground Forces to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv was based on the study of questions approved by the government headed then by Viktor Yanukovych and to return the institute to Odesa would be wrong and senseless. He stressed that everyone has to do their own business; the church should provide pastoral care and the government should deal with economic issues and decision making.

"Recently we have witnessed the Moscow Patriarchate talking about the oil business. Now, we can see an address regarding military matters. But they should stick to their own business," noted Hrytsenko.

As RISU reported earlier, Metropolitan Ahafangel of Odesa of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate forwarded an open letter to Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych asking to settle the question of returning the Institute of Ground Forces to Odesa from Lviv.