Filaret led ATO militants to march in Kyiv under UPA flags
The “Kiev Patriarchate,” unrecognized in the Orthodox world, held a procession in the capital of Ukraine today. The event was dedicated to the Day of the Baptism of Rus' - yesterday a religious procession on the same occasion was held by the UOC MP.
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Today's march was distinguished by the large number of people in military uniform – both participants in the so-called ATO and military chaplains. They unfurled Ukrainian national flags, as well as banners of the collaborationist UPA and the insignia of some units fighting in Donbas, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The marchers carried an icon of the "patroness of the military," which had been "consecrated" the day before and depicted Banderites and modern-day militants in balaclavas.
(It is interesting that some political forces, such as the nationalist party "Svoboda" in advance called on their members to join the procession of the UOC-KP, and this did not cause any criticism of the Ukrainian media, which yesterday, for example, Ukrainian TV channels emphasized that in the godfather representatives of the Opposition Bloc take part in the course of the “Moscow Church”).
After the completion of the procession, the head of the UOC-KP Mikhail "Filaret" Denisenko gave a briefing on Volodymyrska Gorka. The main topics of Filaret's speech were rivalry with the UOC-MP, Russian aggression and the military power of Ukraine.
“You saw that our procession is bigger. There are more clergy and more people. And much more. Just like the "Kyiv Patriarchate" today is the largest church in Ukraine. Since 2014, the “Kyiv Patriarchate” has been growing every year, and the Moscow Patriarchate has been shrinking…
We are for an independent Ukrainian state, for the inviolability of our territories, and they want to annex Ukraine to Russia and create a new Russian empire. This is the difference. And to achieve this goal, they use untruth. It is not true that they call themselves the canonical Church, not being the Ukrainian Church, but being part of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Just like Russia tells a lie to the whole world - that Russia is not fighting in Donbass, that this is a civil war. If it had only been a civil war, we would have restored order long ago. The trouble is that this is not a civil war, but an aggressive war of Russia, although not yet full-scale. They say “we are not there.” The whole world will already be convinced that Russian troops are fighting in Donbass,” Filaret said.
“Today our army is already strong. According to experts, this is the most powerful army in Europe. Because she has experience that no one else has. And therefore our army is invincible,” the head of the UOC-KP concluded his speech.
Filaret led ATO fighters in a march in Kyiv under UPA flags.