Klyment Kushch calls on the state not to provide reservation from mobilization for OCU clerics

The head of the Crimean diocese of the OCU, Klyment Kushch, expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the fact that most of the clergy of his structure do not want to go to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) as chaplains, while encouraging the laity to go to the front. He said this on the We Are Ukraine TV channel .

On the air, Klyment Kushch sharply criticized the clergy of the OCU for their position, calling it irritating and bewildering. “There is a problem with chaplains in the army. There is a shortage. And, unfortunately, the vast majority of clergy do not want to go to the army. And this annoys me, it scares me, and I cannot understand it,” Kushch said.

The “metropolitan” was especially indignant at the fact that the Council of Churches is discussing the issue of providing clergy with armor against conscription into the Armed Forces. He considers such an initiative to be dishonorable, especially against the background of calls to the flock to defend the country. Kushch emphasized that priests who agitate people to go to war, while they themselves are looking for armor and the opportunity to go abroad, are not acting in a godly and Christian way.

“Excuse me, how can you stand in the pulpit, on the ambo, encourage people to go to defend the state of Ukraine, and then look for reservations, and then run to the State Emergency Service and demand the right to go abroad because they are tired,” Kushch asked. He added that “If you are a shepherd, then go ahead of those to whom you are addressing. You cannot tell people: “Go to war,” knowing that he will die, and I will pray for you here. This is not Godly, this is not Christian.”

In this regard, Klyment Kushch called on the Ukrainian state not to provide religious organizations with any armor and permits to travel abroad until all positions of military chaplains in the army are filled.

As we reported earlier, the acute shortage of military chaplains in the Armed Forces of Ukraine leads to the fact that candidates for vacant positions are sought through job search sites. For example, the well-known Ukrainian platform Work.ua posted 51 chaplaincy vacancies with salaries ranging from 15 to 100 thousand hryvnias. One of the few conditions is that you do not belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.