Priests of the Zaporozhye Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church told the details about the recent attacks on them, which happened during last week. The video was published by the TV channel “Inter”.

On January 12, an unknown person attacked the priest of the Holy Protection Cathedral, Archpriest Vladimir Gumenyuk, stabbing him in the head with a knife.

“We were at odds with him on a collision course, and I suddenly received a blow to the head, fell on one knee and, purely mechanically, covered my head with my hands. For several minutes I had a loss of speech,” the injured priest said in an interview.

Archpriest Vladimir himself went to the hospital, where he underwent an operation. While the priest was in the hospital, in the same area on January 16, there was another attack on the cleric of the UOC Deacon Georgy Cherpakov. The priest said that in the first place he was afraid not so much for himself, so much for his family.

“(The attacker) unbuttones his jacket, pulls out a knife with his left hand, puts it in his right hand and approaches us with a knife. When he began to get very close to us, we began to pray aloud, and he began to shake off and walks away,” said Deacon George.

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye and Melitopol commented on the series of attacks on the clergy.

“Any passing person could have been in the priest’s place. This kind of anger and cruelty exists in our society. This is another sign and the Lord shows us that we are on the right path, we are following the Lord,” he said.

Recently, during a couple of days in the Ukrainian city Zhaporozhye two UOC priests were attacked by the unkniwn people. The reasons of the attackas are were not identified.