In Kremenchuk, the media harassed the director of one of the city's schools because of his affiliation with the UOC

In Kremenchuk, local media organized a media attack on the principal of local school No. 15, Andriy Panteril, because of his affiliation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The media and local activists, who launched a whole social media campaign about it, were not satisfied with the fact that Panterilo took part in a bishop’s service in one of Kremenchuk’s churches, allegedly during working hours. The wave of hate did not weaken even after the director himself assured the media that he was not at the service during work, but during a short-term vacation. This was reported by the regional edition Telegraph.

“Residents of Kremenchuk are outraged in social networks that the director of one of the schools greeted the clergy of the UOC with “bread and salt”. He allegedly did this during working hours. However, the director himself says that he was on vacation at the time. On December 14, a resident of Kremenchuk, Olga Ponomarenko, posted on Facebook that on December 13, the principal of Kremenchuk Elementary School No. 15 met representatives of the Kremenchuk Diocese of the UOC during working hours, along with the relevant photos from the diocese’s website. According to her, the photo with the principal was removed from the diocesan website, but the chests were preserved,” the publication reports.

The director himself tried to comment on the situation, assuring all those interested that he was on vacation at the time of his participation in the service, but apparently, his answer did not satisfy everyone.

“At that time, I was on my second day of family leave, so even though it was on a working day, I did not neglect my duties. I will be back at work on Monday,” — Panterilo said.

It is worth noting that this is not the first case of discrimination against employees of state institutions on religious grounds. Earlier, we reported that Svitlana Galchenko, an associate professor of the Department of World History and International Relations at the Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University, was fired after her daughter, Yelyzaveta Dibrova, recorded a video on social media in which she critically described her attitude to the OCU and the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Elizaveta herself, who was a student at the same university, was expelled.