UOC bishop: The scale of Khruschev persecution is not comparable to nowadays

Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol commented on the situation around the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in his telegram channel and stated that the scale of the Stalin-Khrushchev persecution of the Church was negligible compared to what is happening now in Ukraine.
The hierarch of the UOC remembered the Kurenevka tragedy, which killed more than 2 thousand people.

Recall that on March 13, 1961, the Kurenevka tragedy occurred in Kyiv – the streams of construction waste, breaking through the dam, filled the whole block. More than 2,000 people died that day. Three days before the “Kurenevka Flood”, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was closed for almost 30 years.

“It can be assumed there will be another Kurenevka tragedy to the effect what will follow the current persecution of our Mother Church, headed not by the Pope of Istanbul, but by Christ,” he added.

Metropolitan Luke noted the coincidence of these two events. The last time the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was closed on March 10, 1961. On March 10, 2023, the UOC was notified that it no longer has the right to serve in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

“Looking at what Ukrainian politicians are doing in our country, only one phrase comes to mind: ‘Forgive them, Lord, they don’t know what they are doing.’ The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was closed on March 10, 1961 under the pretext of ‘repair and restoration work’. And a few days later the Kurenevka tragedy happened. Accident? There are no accidents for a believer... While Khrushchev was a crazy atheist in his head, then those who are going against the Church now have real Satanism in their hearts!” He added and noted that at the moment Ukraine is led by the enemy of the human race.

“One doesn’t need to be an experienced civil servant or a diplomat to understand the obvious. Either enemies and traitors, or people possessed by evil can divide the people in a country at war, to set against the authorities those people who defend their native land, to incite religious hatred. An enemy of the human race seemingly rules our country. After all, the temples of the UOC are seized for only one purpose – to stop worship there. There is no other purpose in this iniquity,” he added.

“Only hardened atheists can go against the Lord during disasters. What God called an abomination is promoted by our deputies as a common way of life. They are introducing bills for same-sex marriage, re-raising the issue of cannabis legalization at a time when husbands give their lives at the front to protect their wives and children. Opportunists in cassocks, agents of the modern NKVD approve of all this, while the Church, which maintains its fidelity to Christ and the Gospel, is persecuted by them. What will be the result of such a policy? The question is rather rhetorical,” he concluded.

As previously reported by the UOJ, the Chesno movement included Metropolitan Luke in the "state traitors register".