On May 10, during the seizure of the church in honor of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian by the OCU activists in the village of Zabolotye, Rivne region, ten believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffered. Two people were hospitalized, the rest were helped at the scene of the conflict, writes UOJ.

A 65-year-old parishioner Eva Suprunets received the most serious injury: the woman fell to the ground from a strong blow and completely knocked out her knee joint. An ambulance on duty at the church immediately took the believer to the hospital, where she received emergency assistance.

On the morning of May 10, the rector of the church, father Andrei Bezdomov, was also hospitalized with high pressure.

“You know, the religious conflict has been going on for two years, but there was a lull, we relaxed a bit, and these events knocked the ground out from under our feet,” the rector said. “My blood pressure rose to 200/210, they took me to the hospital in an ambulance, gave me various injections, and I couldn’t stay in the ward when my people were beaten there.”

In total, as eyewitnesses told the events, supporters of the OCU injured 10 people during the seizure of the temple.

“Imagine: the yard was gray from splashing gas. Those who got the foam from the fire extinguisher in their eyes left faster, and after the gas with pepper, which the mercenaries brought by the OCU injected into their mouths and eyes, people could not recover for several hours,” commented on the events of May 10, a parishioner of St. John of the Theological сhurch Maria Gnitko…

After the police officers sealed the temple, they also collected all the testimonies and statements from the victims. Four believers of the UOC officially claim to investigate the facts of their beating.

“And I am glad for our people, no matter how cruel it sounds, because they saw and felt how they became martyrs, how they went to death for Christ,” added father Andrei Bezdomov.