The Russian army came in where the Moscow Patriarchate was present. Remaining there means being involved in the murder of Ukrainian citizens. This is the opinion of chaplain Sergey Dmitriev. Previously, he was a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In the summer of 2014, together with the parish and the church, it came under the jurisdiction of the UOC-Kyiv Patriarchate. Now he is a chaplain of the OCU.
He writes about it Gazeta.ua.
"In 2014, he voluntarily joined the 30th separate Mechanized Brigade as a chaplain. There were already the first losses. I was waiting for the bishops of my church to make a statement in support of Ukraine. But they were silent. Then the Moscow Patriarchate ceased to exist for me as a church. Staying there meant participating in the murder of Ukrainian citizens.
At the sermon, he announced that Russia had attacked us, our church is silent, does not make any decisions. I told the faithful that we will no longer pray for the Russian Patriarch, but will move to the Kyiv Patriarchate. The whole parish supported me.
They tried to blackmail me. The dean, like most priests of the Moscow Patriarchate, came from western Ukraine. He threatened to seize the church. He said, "You can start. Then we will go to your native village of Vishnevets and write on the gate: "a traitor lives here." He calmed down," Dmitriev said.
"None of the priests were agitated to follow my example. If they want to do the same, they will do it. Stories about canonicity are fairy tales. Priests swear an oath to the Church. And the Church is about people. Therefore, it is logical that we should serve the Ukrainian people," Serhiy Dmitriev added.