Rector in Pereyaslav details attack by OCU members
The priest was attacked, thrown to the ground and had his face pepper sprayed.
Fr. Oleg Rodionov, the rector of the Sts. Boris and Gleb Church of the UOC in Pereyaslav gave details of the attempted seizure of the church by OCU supporters, reports "Dozor on 1 Kozak".
According to Fr Oleg, in early hours of November 5, 2022, he and his wife (matushka) woke up to hear powerful blows. Coming out of the church house, which is located a few metres from the church, the priest saw a group of 15 unidentified people standing at the door of the church.
"They were knocking the locks off the temple. The matushka was filming on her phone. I approached the temple and asked: ‘What are you doing?’.” But they were silent and someone commanded 'no distractions'," said the priest.
When he tried to stop the unlawful entry into the temple, he was thrown to the ground, hit several times and had his face doused with pepper spray.
According to the priest, the attackers took his wife's phone and removed a video recording of the entire incident from it. He called the police and an ambulance, which arrived before law enforcement officials did. " The last to arrive were the security guards under whose protection this temple is," the priest reported.
"When they fell on me, they trampled me thoroughly, like a herd of elephants. There was a deafening blow to the head," Fr Oleg told reporters after he recorded the beating and filed a report with the police.
As reported, OCU raiders in Pereyaslav attempted to seize a church by beating the rector.
