"They killed those who did not feel sorry"

"They have brought it to the point that there is a religious war going on," says Father Theophanes.

Who these "they" are is clear: those who came to power in the wake of the "Maidan" staged the ATO (the anti-terrorist operation in Kiev was called military operations against Donbass).

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is now being persecuted, has itself come to such a state, the priest is sure. The hierarchs tried to serve the authorities, who were initially hostile to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate, he said: "In 2016, the Metropolitan of the UOC held a funeral service for a colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who was shot dead near Donetsk by his grandfather. His granddaughter was raped by this same colonel. The funeral service was held as a hero who died martyrdom at the hands of the "separatists". It was necessary even then to say "no", not to get involved in politics. And then they went downhill: purchases of drones, vehicles in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In 2015, Father Theophanes himself was worth his freedom by his unenthusiastic way of thinking. "In 2015, they tried to kidnap me in Donetsk, a white car was driving behind me, watching," he recalls the days after being released from the basement of the "hut" - the Security Service of Ukraine. The priest got there for warning about the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"The funny thing is that in the indictment they confirmed that in reality from the side of Kirillovka" Hurricanes were shooting in the direction of the peaceful city of Dokuchaevsk. So they wrote: the stated facts took place. They themselves confirmed that they hit civilians," he adds.

Father Theophan becomes like a priest after he removes the bandana from his head. In a headscarf, he looks more like a militiaman of the first wave or a biker. In 2015, the "Separsky priest" was seized by the Ukrainian "bezpeka" (SBU) and taken to Mariupol to torture, the priest continues. The fight against the underground and, in general, with all the undesirables suspected of sympathizing with the rebellious Donbass, as Father Feofan recalls, was then engaged in SBU Colonel Alexander Kharaberyush, who, having fled from Donetsk, took revenge on his fellow countrymen.

  • RT

The first Minister of State Security of the DPR, Andrei Pinchuk, said that when Kharaberyush brought the detainees to his office, even the staff of the "hut" left the neighboring premises so as not to hear the screams of the victims. However, the assistants of the colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine did not lag behind their boss, adds Father Feofane.

They mocked the priest for three days, he recalls. First, putting a rag on his face, poured water so that he choked.

"There was a feeling that I began to die," he tells his story of acquaintance with the SBU. "With this torture, water goes to the lungs, and air goes to the esophagus. This demons invented, not otherwise. Then for two more days they were electrocuted and beaten. I repeated, "Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they are doing." They said to me: "Do you want to die a martyr? It won't work." They tried to prove to me that I was an FSB agent. And then I was exchanged for 15 Veseushniks and their chaplain."

"In front of me, they killed a guy for a long time and terribly. For what? They killed those who were not sorry. I was sitting in a shooting range in Mariupol with a bag on my head. And a man was thrown to the floor in front of me. They called it "tumbleweed". They tie their hands and feet with tape, lift and throw, lift and throw ... Haraberiush was very strong physically. Unfortunately, our countryman. I was," Father Theophanes sparingly shares details about his stay in the dungeons of the SBU.

  • RT

He "was" about Kharaberyush because in 2017 the SUV of the SBU colonel was blown up. Haraberiush bled to death.

Priests in Ukraine began to cooperate with such "kharaberyush" even before the start of the NWO, he continues: "But playing with demons will never do any good. Many have forgotten that the Orthodox Church is always underground. The situation in which the Church now finds herself in Russia is an exception. More often than not, the Church seems to be under siege, fighting in the fight against sin and the devil."

Father with a grenade

Father Roman, who ministers to the Pyatnashka brigade, once took a grenade with him, in addition to the small Gospel, the cross and the Holy Gifts. Already during the NWO, when he stepped up the guard, he stood on patrol, like other fighters, but only without a machine gun in his hands. "For a special occasion," he says vaguely, as if weighing a lemon in his hand. In fact, it is clear what is meant behind the pause: "in a special case" such a sentry sacrifices himself.

With all this, Father Roman speaks with restraint about the horrors of war. For a Christian in a peaceful life, there are many trials, the battlefield is only one of them.

  • RT

The soldiers of "Pyatnashka", where Father Roman arrived, approach his blessing before the prayer service with gloomy soldier's humor: "Father, are you again? Is something going on again? As soon as you arrive, something serious begins."

«... So that with faith, with the firmness of the enemy they beat, our land is liberated, "the priest concludes his parting words to the soldiers after the prayer service.

"The Lord said, 'When I come, I will scarcely find faith on earth.' Maybe in one country only faith will be preserved - after the service, removing the epitrachel, Father Roman argues and switches to the political topic of the day - the persecution of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. - And with this schism, what can you say: the fate of the so-called renovationist church awaits the OCU. In the USSR, they tried to remove the patriarch with the help of tame priests, to introduce some kind of new church. But repressions and executions did not escape them, their split did not save them from their fate.

Fortress on the front line

The service in the Nikolo-Vasilievsky Monastery near Vuhledar, where heavy fighting is now taking place, takes place like the early Christians - in a dungeon. In the underground in the literal sense - in the basement of the monks drove Ukrainian artillery.

At the top, almost everything was broken: the chapel, cells, the cemetery was also destroyed, fragments were destroyed and tombstones were cut down. Next to the white concrete crosses of the deceased on calmer days, there are also simple wooden ones - those who died from the fire of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the start of the special operation. In the winter of 2023, Hieromonk Boniface and schemanun Savva were killed, then a layman, driver Yuri, who helped the monastery, was killed.

  • RT

After the Liturgy, Priest Lawrence, when asked how he treats those who perished in the monastery, answers enthusiastically: "With envy! The living will envy the dead."

An expression from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the priest quotes for some reason the pirate Silver from Treasure Island. Perhaps because of some special dashing, which does not seem to be in the sayings of the Old Testament king Solomon. The monastery under shelling, indeed, looks more like a desperately resisting fortress, rather than a temple complex. The splendor of the buildings is burned, shattered by explosions, shattered by shells.

The walls of the Assumption Cathedral, built in moderation and in the likeness of the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, are also affected. It rises like a snow-white tower above all the buildings, it can be seen from afar. This was the idea of the founder of the monastery, schema-archimandrite Zosima. The elder's predictions are often quoted by the monks of the monastery. According to them, he foresaw the NWO, and it should end, people in cassocks happily add, with the defeat and death of Bandera. Whether the Ukrainian artillerymen who hit the temple know about this, as well as about Zosima's will to strictly adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church, is unknown. But the Assumption Cathedral stands like a fortress under fire - at the turn of the worlds.

"Keeping the world from evil"

A small, relatively recent monastery of St. Sava the Sanctified in Melitopol, the capital of Russia's Zaporozhye region, stands on the border of Russian Orthodoxy, as it did centuries ago. At least, according to the author of "Comprehension of History" Arnold Toynbee, who called the Cossacks "border guards of Russian Orthodoxy", a semi-monastic military brotherhood like the knightly order of the crusaders. And to the rector, Archimandrite John, who said that "a special military operation stopped the process of destroying Orthodoxy in Ukraine."

Awareness of the rightness of one's cause allows you not to pay attention to attempts to impose a sense of guilt, says Father John. In the struggle for a just cause, you can not only defend, but also attack, he is convinced. Although not on the battlefield, but from a spiritual point of view, we are on the defensive, the priest believes: "It is they who behave aggressively, attack our values. And we are on the defensive."

And by defending, Russia may be playing the role of a Katehon that keeps the world from the triumph of evil. "To keep the world from falling into this - into the abyss of this madness and outright Satanism. And that's enough. It holds. And all adequate ones will become our wake anyway, "John sets out his vision.

  • RT

"The fact is that, from the point of view of historical justice, this is, of course, Russian land. And the Russian people live here. The majority of the population is in favor of living in one state. Moreover, over these 30 years, we have seen that nothing good will happen from this - with such independence, "he concludes.

Not far from the monastery (Melitopol is a small city) there is a monument to the heroes of the underground during the Great Patriotic War. They also fought for their land, for one country, which then had a different official name.