Ukraine Church Elects Pro-Russian as Head: Country Leaders Red Faced
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Largest Denomination
Orthodox Christians constitute the largest denomination in Ukraine. But they are split between two Ukrainian Orthodox Churches — one loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate and the other to Kyiv Patriarchate. The former is stronger with more than 11,000 parishes and operates as a semi-autonomous church.
Russian Cynicism
Meanwhile, Ukraine denounced Russia’s dispatch of a humanitarian aid convoy to Ukraine as an act of unbounded cynicism to serve pro-Russian separatists.
Making an indirect reference to the Russian aid, Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk hit out at Russia at a government meeting and said they first sent tanks, Grad missiles and bandits to fire at Ukrainians, and now they are sending water and salt.
Russia Convoy Advancing
Meanwhile, 12 Ukrainian nationalist fighters were killed on Wednesday when pro-Russia rebels opened fire at the bus they were travelling to the rebel-held city of Donetsk. This was disclosed by military spokesman Artem Skoropadsky, reported Reuters.
The incident brews the suspicions of Kyiv and Western capitals that the Russian convoy’s entry into Ukrainian soil will worsen things and boost the morale of separatists, who had been losing ground to government forces.
The Russian convoy of 280 heavy trucks on Wednesday reached the southwestern Russian town of Voronezh. There it was stopped at an air base, according to Reuters.
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