Volyn: Transition to OCU led by farmer and President’s “good friend”

In Volyn, employers, influential people in the region, and simply “good friends” of the President join the process of “transferring” the communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU.

So, on February 17, 2019, a meeting of the territorial community took place in the club of the village of Piatidni of the Unified Territorial Community of Ustilug of Volyn region. The participants of the meeting already in the club learned that all of them, without exception, became members of the local religious community, which means they unanimously raised their hands in response to the proposal of the local millionaire farmer Valery Dibrova to transfer the community of the temple of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU, informs the press service of Vladimir-Volynsky eparchy.

Valery Dibrova personally chaired the meeting and therefore, there could not be any other result of the voting in this locality.

“Taught by the Soviet past, he never forgot the leading and decisive role of the ruling party. In the past, as a member of the Communist Party, he headed the local collective farm named after the XXII Congress of the Soviet Union Communist Party. After the collapse of the Union, the collective farm was reformed into a peasant union, and later into the Piatidni Limited Liability Company. Repeatedly changing his party affiliation, today Valery Dibrova is a deputy of the regional council from Poroshenko bloc. Petro Poroshenko personally visited the farm of Dibrova and called him "his good friend,” noted in the eparchy.

The Piatidni farm leases shares of peasants and land in several areas and, in fact, Dibrova is one of the main employers and sources for the survival of residents in a number of villages. That is why their fate practically depends on whether each villager supports the initiative of the “owner”.

Valery Dibrova was actively involved in the Tomos promotion  in Volyn. However, the village of Piatidni was not the only one Dibrova limited himself to – agitators acted in the villages of Ustilug, Khotiachov, Ludin, Chernikov, Izov.

The envoys from Dibrova frankly admit to local priests that although they realize that interfering with the life of the religious community is unlawful, they do not dare to disobey the will of the “master” because they will not find a job in the village anywhere else.

“And the intervention is really illegal. And if simple villagers do not realize this, then Valery Dibrova knows well what a number of Ukrainian laws he violates when he collects votes from members of the territorial community and passes them off as the free will of the general assembly of the parish. Yet, not only the villagers are obviously dependent in their choice on the millionaire farmer, but he himself is far from being free,” concluded the Vladimir-Volynsky eparchy.

As the UOJ reported, the clergymen of the Volyn eparchy discussed with the representatives of the GUNP (General Directorate of National Police) the difficult situation that has developed in the sphere of interfaith relations in the region. On February 28, 2019, a prayer standing will be held in Lutsk in defense of the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It begins at 11 am on Kievskaya Square opposite the building of the regional state administration.