UOC (MP) bishop celebrated ‘Republic’s Day’ together with "DNR" leadership

On May 11, Bishop Varsonofiy (Vinnychenko) of Novoazovsk, Vicar of Donetsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) took part in the celebrations of the so-called ‘Republic’s Day’ in Donetsk. The photos attesting to this fact appeared on Facebook. Pages. One year ago, the militants had conducted a ‘referendum’ on the state independence of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the occupied territories. The UOC (MP) hierarch was near the rostrum beside the republic’s leadership and welcomed the celebration participants.

His Eminence Varsonofiy (Vinnychenko) became bishop of Novoazovsk in March 2013. He started his clerical ministry in 1995 in Maikop (Russia), where he was ordained a deacon.

Igor Girkin ‘Strelkov’, the former self-proclaimed defense minister of the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DNR) said warm words about His Eminence Varsonofiy and encouraged to support the bishop’s cause of collection of humanitarian aid. Describing the hierarch, he recalled that Bishop Varsonofiy “was one of the first to support Novorossia (the “New Russia’’), thus fulfilling not only his religious but also civic duty to Russia.”