Lomachenko to be exchanged for treason: Azov's reaction to post on Church

On December 31, Ukrainian boxer and former world champion in three weight categories Vasyl Lomachenko reposted an excerpt of Metropolitan Longin's sermon on his Instagram page. The metropolitan says that the Ukrainian state has started a war against God, the Lord's Church and the Ukrainian people.

"We have an opportunity to show how faithful we are to our Father in Heaven and the Mother of our Church, whether we are true Orthodox and whether we truly believe in God at all and how committed we are to Him! As they say that friends are known in trouble, today the true Orthodox will show themselves in the most difficult moment for our Church. We are given a great opportunity today to prove whether we are worthy of eternal life in the Kingdom of God! Peace be with you all!" - Lomachenko wrote under an excerpt from the Metropolitan's sermon.

Ukrainian nationalists immediately reacted to the boxer's post. Bohdan "Tavr" Krotevych, the chief of staff of the Azov regiment, published a post on Twitter with a proposal to make Lomachenko a new "Medvedchuk", for whom "we can free a lot of our guys from captivity". In his Instagram post, he tagged the SBU and added, referring to the enforcers: "The SBU, I think, can charge here, what do you think? And if it's taken for treason, you can trade a lot of Ukrainian patriots who are in captivity for that afterwards."

As reported, Vasyl Lomachenko started serving at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, helping to bake prosphoras.