Metropolitan Mytrofan, the administrator of the Diocese of of Luhansk the Moscow Patriarchate, has died in occupied Luhansk. According to official data, the cause was a heart attack. However, rumors began to spread that the alleged death occurred after communicating with local "security forces", one of whom hit an influential hierarch, but did not calculate his strength and accidentally killed him.
Head of the Information and Educational Department of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Klyment (Vecherya) commented on the death of Metropolitan of the UOC-MP in an interview for Glavkom.
He noted that he had not seen a single document that would testify to the violent death of the hierarch.
"The Luhansk diocese reports that he had a heart attack, fell and died. Vladyka Mitrofan complained of angina pectoris and high blood pressure for a long time. In the near future, he was going to go to the hospital with these problems. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to do it," he commented.
At the same time, Klyment commented that the document refers to a head injury from a blow, which obviously caused "brain edema".
"According to the hierarch's relatives, during a heart attack, he fell down the stairs and received such an injury. For me, as a citizen of Ukraine, documents that are issued in that territory are absolutely not documents. I think that for both you and me they have no legal force," he commented.
Metropolitan Klyment also said that the bishop's relatives wanted Metropolitan Mytrofan to be buried in the territory controlled by Ukraine.
It should be noted that Metropolitan Mytrofan was one of those metropolitans of the Church in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate who served in the occupied territory, he was accused of collaborating with militants, and the Ukrainian special services were interested in his activities.
In addition, before presenting the Tomos to the OCU, Metropolitan Mytrofan was a member of the Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate to conduct negotiations "with those who have separated from church communion."