Zaporizhzhia Pagans Accused of Land Seizure

The Ordzhonikidze District Police Department of the eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia turned down the request of a local organization, Rus Orthodox Circle, to initiate proceedings regarding the destruction by unknown persons of several sanctuaries and wooden sculptures of “native gods” of the Zaporozhzhia pagan community which were erected on the island of Khortytsia.   The official response of the police reads that the refusal to initiate proceedings is due to the absence of evidence and the small significance of the fact, even though the local pagans continue to view the destruction of the sanctuaries as an act to provoke interreligious hatred in the region.   

“On 6 September, on Khortytsia, places where residents of Zaporizhzhia confessing the old Slavic faith perform religious rituals,were destroyed. The images of the native gods erected in several places of the island of Khortytsia were chopped, burned and some were thrown in the Dnieper River.  Unfortunately, the police failed to find the intruders, but instead they are trying to punish us now,” told one of the leaders of the Zaporizhzhia organization Rus Orthodox Circle, Vadym Lytvynov.

According to the pagans, the police saw attributes of a violation in their actions and accused the pagan communities of “self-willed seizure of a land plot” in the reserved territory.

“There is no firm peace between Zaporizhzhia religious denominations but there is no war either. Therefore, the statements of the pagans that the destruction of their sanctuaries is stirring of interreligious hatred are hasty.  Most probably, it is ordinary hooliganism,” stated the acting head of the Department on Matters of Nationalities and Religions of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration, Petro Prokhorov, in an interview with a correspondent of the agency Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him the destroyed pagan shrines were built without official consent of the authorities of Zaporizhzhia and the administration of the “Khortytsia” Reserve. “If the pagan objects of worship were legitimate, the regional state administration would undoubtedly interfere in the situation. As for now, the local pagan organizations would better legalize their places of worship and the regional administration is prepared to help them,” stressed Prokhorov.  

The representatives of the pagan communities state that they intend to dispute the refusal of the police to initiate proceedings.