On August 10, 2021, Archpriest Yaroslav Kushnirchuk, Dean of the Novomirgorod District of the Kirovograd Diocese of the UOC, published an appeal to his fellow citizens on his personal page in connection with the persecutions by the head of the “Freedom” party in Novomirgorod, Kirovograd Region, Vadim Batiy. In his threats, the “svobodovets” demands to dismiss the priest from the post of history teacher at the local school and threatens him with “garbage lustration” during personal meetings. Father Yaroslav drew attention to the violation of his constitutional rights and insult to religious feelings and said that despite the pressure, he would remain always faithful to his Church. This was reported by the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

Archpriest Yaroslav Kushnirchuk has been in the priesthood for seven years, in addition, he teaches history at the Novomirgorod secondary school of the I-III century. # 1.

For the head of the local Svoboda cell, this fact became a pretext for political PR. On August 5, on his Facebook page, Vadim Batiy published fake videos in which the provocateur impersonates a monk of the Pochaev Lavra and confesses his love for Russia and hatred for Ukraine. Under this post, Mr. Vadim wrote: “Here’s what you need to know about the Moscow church !!! And here the Moscow pop teaches history at school !!! ”

“I am the only history teacher who holds a priestly rank. I didn’t want to bring this question to the whole society. Therefore, I wrote personal messages to Mr. Vadim, in which he substantiated his position and asked for the facts of my destructive anti-Ukrainian activities or agitation practices at school, – said the clergyman in his address.

The very next day, Vadim Vladimirovich came to the chairman of the OTG Zabazhan I.V. and began to urge the head to make efforts and fire me from school. When all this was unsuccessful, on August 9, at about 12:00 pm, he met me in the city center, near the house of the Regional State Administration, and began to put pressure on me psychologically. Then there were threats of physical violence and a hint of the so-called “garbage lustration” if I did not quit school. ”

Father Yaroslav officially stated that in this way Mr. Batiy “is exerting discriminatory pressure on me because of my religious affiliation, which is a direct violation of the Constitution of Ukraine, Art. 35, which says that “everyone has the right to freedom of worldview and religion” “, because in fact the only fault that the” svobodovets “incriminates him” is only in the fact that I am a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “