HS in Ukraine Palm Sundays were celebrated in many places around Kiev with funerals – “Ukraine is strong, but we have to pay a heavy price for the madness of the Russian leadership”

Kiev / Irpin

Kievan Iryna Kovalenko stopped at the gate of Vladimir the Great, or St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, on Sunday morning to buy a bunch of willow branches. Forty-centre branches were really bursting with willow cats, and the bundle cost only a good euro.

“Aren’t they beautiful,” Kovalenko said as he walked through the gate toward the cathedral and the soon-to-begin Palm Sunday service.

“There is nothing more beautiful in this terrible time. How can the Russians do such atrocities, ”he continued.

“I am not the most active churchgoer. Now I wanted to come. I thought it would calm you down. This is horrible. There was also an air alarm last night. I can not sleep.”

In Ukraine Palm Sunday was celebrated on Sunday, as the Orthodox Church still uses the Julian calendar.

Torture Week kicks off in an exceptionally distressing mood. Less than two months ago, Russia launched a war of aggression, the brutality of which has shocked even the worst-off. Ukraine’s effective resistance has prevented Russia from moving forward as planned, but Russia has wreaked havoc.

Over the weekend, Russian forces have continued to bomb Kharkiv, Mariupol and Severodonetsk, among others, but Russia has also fired rockets and missiles elsewhere in the country. In Kiev, too, air alarm sirens have sounded every night, but explosions have struck outside the city.

At the beginning of April, a clear picture of Russia’s actions in the occupied territories was gained as Russia withdrew its troops from the Kiev area to concentrate its forces on eastern Ukraine. At the same time, the extent of the terror against civilians was revealed.

The bodies of more than 900 civilians have already been found in the vicinity of Kiev in these liberated areas, but more and more dead people are being found as searches continue. Those not found in the ruins of the houses that collapsed in the bombing have generally been shot. There are clear signs of torture in many of the deceased, in addition to eyewitnesses who have been raped by Russian soldiers and robbed.

Read more: Butcha’s first mass grave finally cleared – HS follows war crimes investigation in badly destroyed city

“It’s all awful, of course. Ukraine is strong, but we have to pay a heavy price for the madness of the Russian leadership. They shoot civilians in grief, ”arrived at the cathedral Volodymyr Shevchenko said it at the door.

“Yes, I believe in Ukraine’s victory. There are no options. But he also needs comfort, so I came to church, ”he said.

“Fortunately, we have time to get our own church. The activities of the Moscow Patriarchate should already be banned in Ukraine. “

Majority there are orthodox Ukrainians. More than half of them belong to the Independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which is rushed to rain by Kovalenko and Shevchenko, the main cathedral in central Kiev. However, there are still churches and congregations under the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially became independent from the Moscow Patriarchate in early 2019, when the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul Bartholomeus I granted it the status of an independent church, despite strong opposition from the Moscow Patriarchate and Russia.

Preparations for the independence of the Church from the Moscow Patriarchate had begun shortly after Russia had conquered Crimea in 2014 and launched hostilities in eastern Ukraine. Our own church was seen as an important step in secession from Russian influence, as the Moscow Patriarchate has traditionally been subordinate to Russian rulers. Moscow’s current patriarch Kirillin during which the church has functioned as a single Russian ministry.

It has also been evident during the great Russian offensive. Kirill has not only supported it but also reiterated the Kremlin’s propaganda line that Ukraine is not separate from Russia in its own country and culture. As part of this same propaganda, he has explained that Ukraine has drifted away from Russia under the malevolent influence of outsiders.

Cyrillic speeches have also aroused bad blood in many of the Ukrainian Orthodox churches that have visited the Moscow Patriarchate. Grenades, missiles and bombs blessed by Cyril also threaten them.

Indeed, many Ukrainian priests under the Moscow Patriarchate have announced their move to the Independent Church of Ukraine during the war. According to experts, at least half of Ukraine’s approximately 12,000 congregations under Moscow are moving to an independent church in Ukraine.

Worship after Palm Sunday continued around Kiev in many places for funerals.

More and more people are still being found in the areas liberated from Russian occupation, and not all of them have been identified yet. However, identification work is done all the time, and after identification, the relatives are quickly buried. In the small towns and villages surrounding Kiev, funeral rallies are often received.

One of these occupied cities was the satellite city of Kiev, Irpin. On the afternoon of Palm Sunday, a 49-year-old Irpinian cemetery was held at Irpin Cemetery. Sviatoslavin funeral. He had been called up to the regional defense forces at the beginning of the war, so he did not officially die as a civilian.

“An explosive hit the building he was in and it collapsed. He was in the ruins for 40 days, ”relatives said.

Tomb of Sviatoslav father Andrei, whose own church is the church of Andreas First Called in the neighboring town of Butcha. A large mass grave was dug in its yard during the Russian occupation. Now his job is to take care of the burial of the dead during the occupation at religious expense.

“I cry and pray for them every day.”