Many people these days mindlessly recite the seemingly-fashionable “Slava Ukraini!” ("Glory to Ukraine!") greeting, forgetting the stiff-right-arm, Nazi-style salute that it always accompanied. Some in Ukraine, “true-believers,” react lethally if deference is not paid to the very-real chant and fascist salute of Ukraine’s Nazi collaborators, the OUN. It now appears that this was the case in the murderous assault upon monks that happened last month.
New information about the August 23 murder of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church monk at the Svyatogorsky Holy Dormition Lavra, north of Slovyansk, was reported yesterday by Oleg Tsaryov. One victim, Monk Gregory, has recovered sufficiently to relate the event. The supposedly “unknown assailants” (still at large) were Ukrainian soldiers who approached Gregory in the monastery with the “Slava Ukraini!” cry. The monk failed to respond in kind, rather offering the greeting, “Glory to our Lord God. Save and Protect.” They then beat him with a wooden beam and stabbed him repeatedly with a knife, puncturing his lung. Now, he apparently has recovered enough (and perhaps is in a safer location) so as to recount the incident.
The assailants proceeded to attack Gregory’s companion, novice Andriy Kyriyenko. Both Gregory and Andriy suffered major blood loss, but the damage to Andriy’s lungs reportedly is more severe. Then around 11:00 a.m. that morning, the assailants “brutally” knifed to death Monk Varsonofy. According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, Varsonofy’s “face was disfigured beyond recognition.”
