The priest Russian Mykhailo Vasylyuk went up to the altar and beat Ukrainian chaplain Anatoliy Dudko with a cross during the funeral of a soldier of the Ukrainelast Sunday (22), in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
According to Newsweek magazine, the assault took place after the chaplain criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin. The chaplain reportedly said that the Russian politician triggered the war in Ukraine, among other reasons, to defend members of the Russian Orthodox Church, of which Mykhailo is a part.
You shared videos on the Ukrainian site Vinbazar on Nexta TV show the Russian priest going up to the altar, with the cross in his hand, pulling the chaplain’s clothes, who pushes him. In the sequence, the priest tries to hit the Ukrainian chaplain with the cross.
According to local activist Serhiy Timkov, he wrote that the Ukrainian chaplain had minor injuries and that the cross that Anatoliy carried around his neck was broken by the Russian priest.
“The Moscow priest assaulted, inflicted minor injuries, ripped the chaplain’s cross and tried to use his cross as a tool for beatings. In my opinion, this goes beyond all possible and impossible limits of arrogance,” Timkov said.
