The head of the OCU, Epifaniy Dumenko, awarded the “Medal for sacrifice and love for Ukraine” to the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk Ruslan Martsinkiv, an official who, immediately after the capture of the UOC cathedral with tear gas, posted a video of the “prayers of the clerics of the OCU” and called the “historic moment” the raider seizure shrines. This was announced by the official on his own Facebook page.

“A pleasant surprise for me was the Medal for Sacrifice and Love for Ukraine,” the mayor commented on the award from Epifaniy Dumenko.

The medal was handed to Martsinkiv by the “hierarchs of the OCU” in the UOC Cathedral, which was brutally taken from the believers.

“On the third day of the Easter holidays, I had the opportunity to pray in the garrison Church of the Nativity of Christ of the OCU. Today, for the first time, a hierarchal liturgy was held here with the participation of the bishops of the OCU, because until recently there were representatives of the UOC-MP. We rejoice that there is no more Moscow in our shrines,” he reported mayor.

Recall that on March 28, young people in balaclavas smoked priests and believers from the Church of the Nativity of Christ with gas, used physical force against them, and the secretary of the Frankivsk diocese, Father Vasily Romanyuk, was hospitalized unconscious after a tear gas attack. Footage of the storming of the shrine spread around the world and caused a negative reaction from the Orthodox and international community.