Former Ukrainian MP Vadym Novynskyi leads service in Russian Orthodox church in Zurich with portrait of Zelenskyy
Vadym Novynskyi, former Ukrainian MP, businessman and cleric of the UOC-MP [the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)], led a service in the largest Russian Orthodox church in Zurich, Switzerland, on Sunday.
Source: Radio Liberty
Details: According to Radio Liberty's correspondent, Novynskyi led a service in the Russian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the heart of Zurich on Sunday.
The church was consecrated in 2022 by Patriarch Kirill (Gundyayev), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to Radio Liberty, there are Ukrainian flags around the church and even a portrait of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Novynskyi said he is not living anywhere in particular at the moment and had travelled to Switzerland from Germany. He has no plans to return to Ukraine to support Pavlo (Petro Lebid), the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (the Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv), because he says criminal cases have been opened against him.
When asked what he is currently doing, he said he was working "for peace in Ukraine".
At the same time, Novynskyi said that the events at the Lavra are "based on lies and manipulations", accusing the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) of being involved in these manipulations.
"Monasteries are being searched, evidence is being planted, facts are being manipulated, and the testimony of perjurers is based on lies. And criminal cases are being initiated against bishops. This has not happened since 1937," the former MP said.
Novynskyi expressed the opinion that the UOC-MP lost the right to use the Lavra because "it did not agree to the conditions" that the Ukrainian state put forward.
"The state wanted us to merge with the schismatic organisation known as the OCU [the Orthodox Church of Ukraine] and voluntarily transfer all the Lavras and monasteries," the former MP said.
Background:
- The Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, removed Vadym Novynskyi from office in July 2022.
- In December last year, the SSU published a list of 10 people who are on the "Church list" of NSDC (National Security and Defence Council) sanctions. They include Vadym Novynskyi and the then-abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Pavlo.
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