"Patriots" and "traitors" not in words but in deeds
The Edem Resort Medical & SPA Hotel in Lviv hosted a charity fundraiser for the AFU, which collected a paltry sum. Why?
On 29 March 2024, a charity dinner was held in the five-star Edem Resort Medical & SPA complex, which is located 10 minutes’ drive from the village of Strilky, near Lviv, organised by the glossy magazine "Piedmont". As is customary in times of war, the charity fundraiser was aimed at aiding the AFU. Specifically, the guests of the event collected money for the purchase of UAVs (FPV drones FlyFish 7) for the 80th Air Assault Brigade.
Apparently, to raise as much money as possible, the organisers decided to hold the event in one of the most expensive recreation complexes in Western Ukraine. We have no doubt that they invited 150 businessmen, bloggers and famous Lviv citizens to Edem Resort Medical & SPA for this very purpose. The guests enjoyed a posh buffet dinner, a children's show of evening and folk costumes and were entertained by singers Andriy Kishe, Natalia Karpa and the "Rendezvous" band. It should also be noted that the host of the charity event was showman Volodymyr Takudis, and the dress code was Black Tie.
In short, the dinner was organised at a very high level and for a lot of money. For example, renting a concert hall at Edem Resort Medical & SPA costs about $7,000 (for this money you can buy 17 FlyFish 7 drones).
One more point: the hotel concert hall does not have its own sound and lights, and guests usually bring them with them. In Lviv sound studios, you are offered sound and light services for the sum that starts from 200 000 hryvnias (that's another 12 FlyFish 7 drones). At the same time, it is clear that you also have to pay the artists who entertained the guests.
Let's assume that Kishe, Natalka Karpa, the "Rendezvous" band and host Volodymyr Takudis decided to to charge not much - "only" 200,000 hryvnias altogether. What will we get in the end? We get the amount that was spent on the organising the charity dinner – about 650 000 hryvnias. This money could have been used to buy more than 40 drones. And here is the main question: how much was raised?
The answer will shock you – 115,000 hryvnias. Or 7 drones. In other words, they paid almost twice as much for the sound. But someone will say that such a paltry sum was collected because not wealthy people but ordinary Lviv residents, who have low salaries and barely make ends meet, came to Edem Resort Medical & SPA. But this is not the case.
The guests were very well-known entrepreneurs in Lviv, for example, the owner of a chain of kindergartens Julia Hetman, the owner of a chain of dental clinics Yaroslav Zablotskyi, Lviv designer Inna Leon, Olha Filatova-Kryvetska, the wife of the entrepreneur and former MP, the owner of Edem Resort Ihor Kryvetskyi.
So, these people are far from being needy. This is also confirmed by their outfits. For example, many of them flaunted original women's handbags, the prices of which range from $1,000 to $5,000 USD.
Some attendees (like “Piedmont” magazine co-owner Anastasia Khryshchuk) wore $500 dresses, and their ears and fingers were adorned with rings and earrings that strongly resembled Van Cleef & Arpels.
In other words, it was a party for rich people, for very rich people.
How much did the guests raise and why?
So, in total 100,000 was raised at the charity dinner; 5,200 more guests put in the box in cash; 10,500 was added by Olena Zhivko (head of the association of volunteers, to whose account the fundraising was opened). It turned out to be 115,500 hryvnias. This is 7 (seven) drones, and the amount of the average donation from the participants was 600 hryvnias.
Agree that taking into account the status of the event, its location (Lviv), the money spent on it, as well as the material status of the guests, the amount raised in the end is not even miserable but shameful. Why did this happen?
Someone may say that the reason for this disgrace is that the Ukrainian people are tired of war, and such events do not attract as much attention as they did at the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. But this is not about the whole of Ukraine but about Lviv. So, we can't talk about any fatigue.
Someone else may say that during two years of war the financial standing of Ukrainians has noticeably decreased. And if we talk about ordinary Ukrainians, this is indeed true. But we are not talking about them but about those who can afford a handbag for 120,000 hryvnias. So, this argument does not fit either.
Then what? Why don't the rich residents of Lviv want to help the AFU?
The illusion of patriotism
In our opinion, the answer is that "the patriotism of the Lviv beau monde" as well as "the patriotism of the Ukrainian beau monde" is an illusion. Real patriots, by and large, are ordinary people. But all the "patriotism" of the Lviv elite now has an exact price – 600 hryvnias.
It should be noted that, according to many Lviv residents, their city has the largest number of "patriots" in Ukraine per square meter. It would seem that the event at Edem Resort Medical & SPA was precisely intended to prove this assertion, to prove the "patriotism" of Lviv residents. But in the "capital" of Western Ukraine, they prefer to prove their "patriotism" not by specific assistance to the country but in a completely different way.
Tell me, what is the easiest way to show oneself a "patriot"? Right, to fight against the canonical Church. For example, nearly a year ago, the Lviv Regional Council demanded that the Parliament and the President ban the UOC.
Pavel Bakunets, a graduate of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and an MP, believes that "if there is no Ukrainian, free from the influence of enemies of religion, then the national cause will not develop successfully." In his opinion, banning the UOC "will help stop the influence on the consciousness of Ukrainians by agents in cassocks".
Probably, it was precisely to "stop" this influence that the UOC Eparchy in the Lviv region was completely destroyed. Exactly a year ago, Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi joyfully announced, "In two days, we ended the history of the Moscow Patriarchate in our city." Moreover, Lviv is currently the only city where the UOC temple was demolished with a tractor.
But again, we ask, is this the essence of patriotism? No. Then what is patriotism? In concrete actions aimed at helping people.
True patriotism
In our opinion, true patriots are UOC believers. Facts speak for themselves, not speculation. Because today, without exaggeration, it can be said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a structure that engages in charity on a scale not available to most government and non-governmental organisations in Ukraine. No one can compare with it in terms of the volume of charity. Let's look at some specific figures.
So, in 2022 alone, based only on information from open sources, the UOC, through its efforts, provided more than 200 tons of humanitarian aid to the Armed Forces and purchased medicines worth more than 4 million hryvnias. Taking into account the purchased vehicles for the AFU, the total amount of aid from the UOC for 2022 exceeds 30 million hryvnias. This is without considering the assistance to civilians, refugees, internally displaced persons and everyone affected by the war.
In 2023, the UOC raised 88 million hryvnias for the military and Ukrainians affected by the war.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry personally donated 2 million hryvnias for the needs of the AFU, and the charitable foundation of the UOC Primate collected another million for the purchase of products for the needy. The clergy and believers of the UOC made about 40 humanitarian trips to the front-line and de-occupied territories, where about 100 tons of humanitarian aid were delivered.
You might say that these figures are not so big, considering the number of UOC parishioners. Yes, more than 125,000,000 hryvnias (in cash, excluding products and humanitarian aid) in relation to the total number of our Church's parishioners may not seem such a large sum. But that's not entirely true.
Because our parishioners are mainly not wealthy people (the wealthy, for the most part, either hide their affiliation with the UOC or have moved to denominations more "prestigious" than the UOC). And this means that their material wealth cannot be compared to that of the representatives of Lviv's elite who raised 115,000 hryvnias.
But even against this backdrop, Orthodox parishioners of the UOC do significantly more than Lviv's "patriots". For example, believers from Volyn alone, within the framework of one fundraising campaign, within one district, and only during the Nativity Fast, collected 140,000 hryvnias for the AFU soldiers and orphaned children.
Also, the choir of the Sunday school at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Mukachevo (Rosvigovo), within the framework of one fundraising event and during a very short period of Christmas carolling, raised funds for needy children in the total amount of 51,250 hryvnias and 110 euros (half of the amount collected at Edem Resort Medical & SPA). In addition, parishioners of the Velykyi Bereznyi and Perechyn deaneries of the Mukachevo Eparchy raised 90,000 hryvnias for the needs of the Armed Forces during the same Christmas carolling.
For example, the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC (which is rebuilding its cathedral destroyed by a Russian missile) donated 500,000 hryvnias to families affected by shelling.
Examples of the UOC's charity can be listed, if not endlessly, then for a long time. But even from the above it becomes clear that true patriotism is very different from what we see on TV screens or social networks.
A true patriot is someone who can sacrifice their own well-being for the sake of others, someone who loves God and fulfills His commandments. Finally, it is someone who proves their attitude toward the country they live in not with words but with deeds.
And in this sense, the fight against the Church in Ukraine is actually a fight against true patriots. Who benefits from this fight? The answer, in our opinion, is obvious.
