Further to Metropolitan Hilarion’s recognition of the Donetsk People’s Republic and its terrorists as legitimate “authorities”, news of another series of atrocities at its hands, this time directed against fellow Christians – non-Moscow Orthodox and Evangelical Protestants. During the years of Soviet oppression and persecution, Western Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox poured out their love and prayer for the captive Orthodox of Russia, not least admiring its hope to become Holy Russia once more. How can the children of those who suffered so much do this to their fellow Christians, especially as the Church of Christ has been brought to its martyrdom by the enemies of Christ in Iraq?
2014/07/26
The Churchmen were tortured and murdered the day after they were captured. Four members of the Transfiguration Evangelical church murderedby pro-Russian terrorists for ‘sectarianism and treason’ against the Russian people were buried in Sloviansk.
SIRGIS INFORM reports:
“On June 8, after the church service was over, the so-called ‘DPR [ed: the Donetsk People’s Republic] militiamen’ stormed the premises of the Transfiguration church, and announced the arrests of deacons Volodymyr Velychko and Viktor Bradarskyii as well as the two adult sons of Pastor Ruvim and Albert Pavenko. The terrorists incriminated the Christians for support of the Ukrainian army, which is a crime against the DPR.”
Impatient and worried, the clergy’s families waited more than a month for the captives’ release. It is reported that Volodymyr Velychko is survived by his wife and eight children. Viktor Bradarskyi was the father of three. One of the Pavenko brothers was single, the other is survived by his wife.
One of the deputy prosecutors of Sloviansk who managed to escape from the DPR captivity testified that the churchmen were tortured and murdered the very next day, June 9. He heard the Pavenko brothers screaming; They were tortured during their interrogation. “Their bodies were found in one of the mass graves, together with two dozen other martyrs (as reported by our Donbas brethren),” the website of the religious organization says.
“We are holding the memorial service today. All Evangelical churches of our city have cancelled their own services and have participated in this memorial service,” Petro Dudnyk, pastor of the Glad Tidings Baptist Church reported posted on his Facebook page.
Following the liberation of Sloviansk from the terrorists, law enforcement officers discovered a mass grave of local resident murdered by the pro-Russian militants.
As Euromaidan Press reported, on July 14 the law enforcement officers discovered the burial site of two priests martyred by the terrorists. The priests were killed for assisting Ukrainian soldiers.
Euromaidan Editor’s note. The original publication mentions eight murdered church members, however, only four martyrs have been confirmed: Ruvim and Albert, sons of Pastor Alexander Pavenko from the Sloviansk evangelical Church of the Transformation, as well as deacons of the church Viktor Brodarsky and Volodymyr Velychko.