Transfer of Ladyzhyn churh to OCU organised by well-known company and MP

The organisers of the raider meeting to transfer the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church of the UOC in Ladyzhyn, Vinnytsia region, were Verkhovna Rada deputy Mykola Kucher and the management of one of the city-forming enterprises – the MHP company (brands "Nasha Riaba", "Bashchinsky", etc.), reports the rector of the temple, Archpriest Yevhen Vorobyev.

Before the meeting, the "initiative group" collected signatures under an appeal calling to "bring Fr. Yevhen to justice" for alleged "ideological subordination to the centre in Moscow". The authors of the appeal also called on the townspeople to stop "tolerating the priest scum" in Ladyzhyn and to "rid the town of Moscow priests". The overwhelming majority of the signatories of this proclamation turned out to be MHP workers.

In addition, according to Orthodox believers of Ladyzhyn, some of the signatures were falsified – some individuals whose autographs appear on the document are not even in Ukraine.

The rector of the Kazan temple said that no one warned the parish community about the meeting, which took place on the premises of the local college, and the event was not announced in the media and social networks.

A significant part of the participants of the meeting were MHP representatives, among whom were not only Ladyzhyn residents but also the residents of other settlements. Sources in the company say that many employees of the company were not able to attend the meeting.

Sources within the company report that many employees participated in the voting under the threat of having their mobilization reservation revoked. To ensure the presence of workers at the meeting, the company's management even changed the work schedule of one of the workshops.

Additionally, a group of military personnel, who are neither parishioners of the Kazan Church nor residents of Ladyzhyn, was organized for the voting.

The event at the college took place under enhanced police security, with reinforcements arriving from neighbouring towns to assist the law enforcers in Ladyzhyn.

In a comment, Father Yevhen Vorobyev also reported that long before the organization of the raiders' meeting, the security service of the MHP company installed covert surveillance on the Kazan Church. The parishioners discovered a hidden camera opposite the church gates four months after the surveillance began. The data on the flash drive provided with the camera pointed to its owner – the head of the security service of the local branch of the MHP company.

As earlier reported, the community of the Kazan Church in Ladyzhyn testified to their faithfulness to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.