UOC MP parishioners beat journalist while storming Cherkasy cathedral

Cherkasy-based journalist and Antenna TV director Valeriy Vorotnyk was injured during the storming of the St. Michael's Cathedral in the morning of October 17.

The journalist reported this to Yelena Shchepak, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Cherkasy oblast.

"I did not interfere, I was standing aside and filming the ROCians breaking into the cathedral premises. One of the priests gave the order to attack me and started pushing. The parishioners, about 10 people, started beating me with sticks and metal pipes. The priest also participated," Valeriy said.

Valeriy Vorotnyk. Photo by Valeriy Vorotnyk on Facebook

He hays the attackers beat him on the back, head, and face. Now he has numerous bruises. He adds that the armed police officers in uniform did nothing to address what was happening. Instead, it was a local deputy and two dialogue police officers who came to his rescue and chased away the hooligans.

"The aggression was coming from Theodosius's flock (UOC MP Metropolitan – Ed.)," stresses the TV director. "They were led by priests as their street commanders. Elderly women and men acted as a crowd, and this created problems. An old lady with a multi-kilogram stick in her hand can injure or kill a person. This is very unfortunate. I was wearing a corset under my jacket because I have a hernia. This corset may have protected my back, there was no significant injury there. But there are reinforcements on the corset to keep it in shape, those are totally crushed. The zombified parishioners were chasing not only me, but any person with a camera deliberately."

Not only the journalist's body, but his equipment was also damaged. He has already sent his professional camera worth UAH 80–90 thousand abroad for repair.

Valeriy Vorotnyk said that he decided not to contact the police about the incident. The press service of the Cherkasy Oblast National Police HQ told the IMI representative that they had not received any such statements.

On October 17, the congregation of St. Michael's Cathedral joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. After that, the building was stormed twice: first, parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate broke into it, and later in the afternoon, the OCU regained control.

Stacks of Russian literature were discovered in St. Michael's Cathedral, including the book "Project Russia".