Sue Us Right Now or Cossacks Are Not to Blame

Human rights defender in the Rivne eparchy Catherine Ivaniuk received a very unusual telephone call on 31 March, 2016. "Sue us", an unknown voice on the phone literally begged for it!

The caller introduced himself as Stepan Ushtyka, a deputy ataman of the local Cossack organization "Volyn Sich". With masochistic anguish in his voice, he pleaded Catherine ... to take the newspaper "Volyn" (to which he belongs) to court. His absurd as for a normal person request, Stepan Ushtyka explained by his distress, poor health, and unstable sleep. He simply could not stand any longer.

Still unclear? Then we'll start from the beginning.

The "Volyn" positions itself as a Rivne regional public weekly newspaper. Among its founders are Ulas Samchuk, a well- known Ukrainian writer of the twentieth century, the late Basil Chervony,  ill-famous for active participation in seizures of the UOC churches, and  the division of the Ukrainian Cossacks "Volyn Sich", whose representative is one of the main figurant of this publication.

The weekly’s editor-in-chief is Sergey Stepanishin.

Brief lines of official information. At first glance – nothing special. Even news content does not cause much interest or concern – provincial news, local events and the like.

However, the anti-clerical libels signed by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, which have begun to appear on the pages of the weekly recently, stand out against the general grey background. They look bright, expressive and revolutionary effective. The author of the publications calls people not to listen to "Moscow belene" from the mouth of "corrupt priests", without hesitation to drive the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the region and go into the "patriotic" Kiev Patriarchate. Fortunately, as the regional reporter says, "a large wave of mass transfer of parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Kyiv Patriarchate has covered almost all regions of Ukraine."

And the heading of the first article "Slaves, trips, Moscow dirt" and a "patriotic" picture already put the reader in the "right" mood. Well, after reading the text, we can’t but applaud the author: to cram in a small-sized article such a record amount of false, distorted and surprisingly wrong information is beyond an ordinary person! The fact that the editor-in-chief of the "Volyn" uses such epithets as "dough", "local pope" and so on only gives the publication a special provincial charm. However, all these exercises, for some reason, were not appreciated by the rector and parishioners of the Holy Protection church of Mnishin village who were most focused on in the article. 67 people signed a letter to the editor "Volyn", in which they expressed outrage and concern about the published material, and demanded a public refutation.

In their claim, the UOC community of Mnishin village, naively appealing to the honesty and journalist ethics of Sergey Stepanishin, demanded to stop inciting inter-confessional strife between religious communities and publish the text of appeal on its information resources. If the reaction is not followed, the UOC believers left a possibility of taking an unscrupulous journalist to court.

Well, the response from the editor-in-chief of the "Volyn" really followed, but it was not at all what the Mnishin congregation had expected. The notorious publication was followed by a new feature, "It's all from evil ...", signed by the same Stepanishin. In a new publication, a local journalist princeling rather than apologize for his blatant lack of professionalism and obvious incitement of sectarian strife decided to continue his anti-clerical rhetoric, adding to it illiterate reasoning on legal topic.

Obviously feeling the tacit support of the local authorities, the editor-in-chief of the "Volyn" did not find it necessary to apologize for his "creativity", thinking he could get away with possible judicial proceedings.  Believing in non-punishment, Sergey Stepanishin had a high opinion of himself to deal with this issue personally, and therefore led to the "war path" his faithful "Sancho Panza" — Cossack  Stepan Ushtyka.

What attracts the latter to the court room so much is difficult to say, but the events on March 31 made it clear that the process is desired for him.

Stepan Ushtyka represents the KP community in the court case on the claim of the UOC-KP of vil. Mnishin, Goshcha district, to the Registration service on the abolition of the title right of the UOC community of vil. Mnishin to the church building, the last meeting of which just took place on 31 March, 2016, in Rivne district administrative court.

The court hearings must have affected Mr. Ushtyka so much that he couldn’t  hold back emotions and called Catherine Ivaniuk with a mocking request to also sue the newspaper "Volyn".  At the same time, the deputy ataman of the "Volyn Sich" refused to recognize the fact that the newspaper "Volyn" had placed discriminatory information against the religious community of Mnishin village, "I do not recognize this, but ask you to sue us. " When he was asked to explain the purpose of the call, Mr. Ushtyka calmly stated, "The reason is simple – just sue us. I cannot sleep, I cannot wait till you take me to court ... Go ahead – sue us ... Let's finish with it all for me to sleep in peace in the future… "

Such unusual desires the man has. In the end, this is not surprising. Leaders and agitators of the Kiev Patriarchate are so extraordinary! They either try to invent the wheel, creating a Ukrainian church, which, without their effort, has been faithfully serving the people since the time of Baptism of Rus, or peddle at the Odessa market the humanitarian aid aimed at the affected population in the ATO zone, or call to dismantle the iconostasis of the 18th century architectural monument, protected by the UNESCO.

Stepan Ushtyka, though he doesn’t’ think so big, also has his little twist – a love for courts… Nothing doing with it.

The telephone conversation of the lawyer with "the deputy ataman of the "Volyn Sich" ended in nothing – it is difficult to talk when you are not heard. Court-lover  and brave "Cossack" Stepan Ushtyka was still holding a mobile, when somewhere above the village of Mnishin the soul of the deceased Ukrainian Cossacks sadly watched their descendants, blushed with shame and embarrassment, and  begged the Lord to tolerate  a little bit more.. . The Cossacks are not to blame.