Gedeon (Haron), a bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was not allowed to enter Ukraine when he arrived at Boryspil Airport on an international flight .
Gedeon (Haron), a bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was not allowed to enter Ukraine when he arrived at Boryspil Airport on an international flight .
This was reported by the State Border Guard Service, Interfax-Ukraine writes.
The department clarified that the bishop was not allowed due to problems with the documents, in particular, possession of citizenship of several countries.
Spokesman of State Border Guard Service Oleh Slobodyan wrote on his Facebook page that Gedeon arrived from Frankfurt and was arrested.
“Regarding this citizen, the border guards executed the order of one of the law enforcement agencies and seized his Ukrainian passport, since this person has citizenship of several countries,” he said.
Slobodian added that the detainee “is engaged in anti-Ukrainian propaganda and is an active follower of the" Russian world.”
Law enforcers arrived at the place of detention.
The bishop published a protocol on document seizure on his Facebook page.
It says that he was withdrawn a passport listed as lost.
Gedeon said on his Facebook page that he was deported to the United States.
However, the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service Oleh Slobodian specified that the bishop took a flight back to Frankfurt.
He added that Gedeon flew away himself and without coercion.
More details about the biography of Bishop Gedeon (Kharon) in aninvestigation by RISU.
Yuri Samuilovich Kharon (secular name of Gedeon) was born in Odessa in 1960. In the late 1980s, he was appointed to serve in Russia. In 1991 he emigrated to the United States. There he was the rector of a church in Santa Barbara, San Francisco.
At the end of the 1990s, he arrived in Ukraine and immediately became a clergyman of the elite St Elias Church in Kyiv. Leaving Ukraine back in the days of the USSR, and returning in the late 1990's, he could not automatically obtain the citizenship of Ukraine.
In 2005, Kharon was appointed rector of the Church of the Tithes. A year later, he installed a tent, which in a strange way first turned into a wooden chapel, and then completely became a major building. The unauthorized construction of a new church of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate along with the archaeological remains of the ancient Cathedral of Tithes, which is a historical monument, was not only illegal, but also provoked a protest by the public and historians.
In 2009, the Holy Synod appoints Gideon as the vicar of the ancient Monastery of Tithes, but legally the monastery was never created. The Holy Synod of the UOC MP in May 2018 approved Gideon as bishop.
He was an assistant to the MP of the Party of Regions, Yuri Miroshnychenko.
In one interview, Kharon himself admitted that he had American citizenship. MP Igor Lutsenko has published a copy of a passport issued by the Russian Embassy in Ukraine, valid until 2013, by Yuriy Kharon. Lutsenko also made public the Ukrainian passport of Kharon, issued in 2011. It is not clear how he received Ukrainian citizenship, bypassing the Commission on Citizenship under the President, as stated in the Presidential Administration. Thus, the monk had, besides the illegally acquired Ukrainian citizenship, the citizenship of two more states: the United States and Russia.
On the website of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a request was made by MP Lutsenko, in which he proves the absence of Ukrainian citizenship, legally acquired by Kharon. Therefore, the deportation of Kharon was obviously imminent.
His Ukrainian passport was previously considered invalid. Now it was confiscated. Kharon is not considered a citizen of Ukraine, and therefore he must adhere to the rules of entry for foreign religious figures.
In order to enter the territory of Ukraine, Bishop Gedeon (Yuriy Samuilovich Kharon), as a foreign citizen, must receive an invitation from a religious organization, as well as approval of his visit by the state. This is a direct requirement of Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”.
Since he did not have the relevant documents, he was not allowed to enter Ukraine. If it were allowed it would be a violation of the current legislation.