In Volyn, activists provoked a conflict with UOC priests during the funeral of an AFU soldier

On September 12, 2024, during the funeral service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine soldier Serhiy Danyliuk in the town of Shatsk, Volyn region, activists and fellow soldiers of the deceased provoked a conflict with the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who were conducting the memorial service. The activists did not like the fact that the funeral service was held in the Church Slavonic language, which they called “Russian”. This was reported by the Volyn News Service.

It is reported that during the memorial service, which took place in the central park of Shatsk, a certain “wife of one of the fallen brothers” took a microphone and began to interrupt the funeral service performed by the priests of the UOC, demanding that they switch to the Ukrainian language instead of Church Slavonic.

“She called for the abandonment of everything Russian, because it is disrespectful to the soldier who gave his life for Ukraine. During her speech, namely in response to the request to change the language of the service, the choirboys began to sing loudly, trying to drown out the voice of the soldier’s widow,” – the media report said.

As a result, a tense situation arose, in which the police intervened, and then the secretary of the Shatsk village council, Bohdan Tymoshchuk, asked the singers to respect the person who was speaking and not to interrupt him with loud singing. After the conflict, the UOC priests who participated in the memorial service left the scene. In the village of Ploske, where the next part of the funeral service took place, the funeral service was conducted in Ukrainian.