The Metropolitan addressed his message to Archbishop Mitrofan of Horlivka and Sloviansk, noted the press-service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:
Christ is Risen!
Your Eminence, the sad news has reached us that on the night of 5th to May 6th, the cleric of the Horlivka diocese Archpriest Pavel Zhuchenko as shot and killed.
We deeply mourn and feel sorrow that in the East and South of our Motherland, brother has stood up against brother, this enmity bringing the sad fruits of malice, hatred, and homicide. We lift our prayers to the Creator and God, Who is the Giver of peace, that He will grant repose to the souls of the slain and sow peace in the hearts of our people, to grant good sense and courage to those who are now in power and those in opposition, so that they solve problems through fraternal dialogue.
Today, dialogue is the only civilized solution to all problems and perplexities, excluding escalation of evil and violence.
Dear Vladyka, please send my deepest condolences to the family of the killed Archpriest Paul Zhuchenko. Let God rest his soul in the abode of the righteous.
I wish that God’s help will be with priests of your diocese in the pastoral care of all those who today are caught up in the fire of trials that have befallen our land and our people.
Let the God of peace will be with us.
Truly He is Risen!
With love in the Christ resurrected,
Onuphrius
Metropolitan of Chernovtsi and Bukovina
The locum tenens of the Kievan Metropolis
We remind you that on the night of May 9th Archpriest Pavel Zhuchenko of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) was shot and killed. The priest served in the St. Dmitry Donskoy church in the city of Druzhkovka (Donetsk region).
