UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate spokesman Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) and UOC-MP spokesman Archpriest Georgy Kovalenko expressed condolences over crash near Donetsk, in which 295 people died. The press conference in Kyiv began with a minute of silence for the victims of the attack.
“How will the crash influence the situation in the country is a matter of politicians, and the matter of believers is a prayer. I express my sympathy on behalf of the entire UOC-MP, from all religious communities Ukraine to those affected, the victims’ families and relatives”, Chairman of the Synodal Information Department of the UOC (MP) Archpriest George Kovalenko started his speech.
“This is a terrible tragedy. I immediately tried to correlate this terrible number of victims to better understand it. Our Theological Academy has 150 students of full-time department, so the number of those killed is a whole of the academy. When the first victims on Maidan appeared, we all knew them by name. And now in the news we see more and more often only numbers. We ask God that he gave spiritual strength and peace for those who have suffered this loss. This grief was caused by those from whom we did not expect to do it at all. It makes everyone think about where the truth is and where it is not”, he said.
Both spokesmen expressed the hope that such a tragedy will never happen again.