Ukrainian special operations unit tried to detain Odessa priest
MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax) - Officers of Ukraine's special operations force Alfa came to the apartment of Odessa priest Oleh Mokryak in order to detain him, but the priest was not home, a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations told Interfax.
"The priest has been accused of contacts with participants in Odessa demonstrations that criticized the policies pursued by the new Kyiv authorities," he said.
The Alfa group that came to the priest's apartment included ten officers armed with automatic weapons, he said.
Father Oleh, who serves at the St. Tatyana Church of the National Law Academy in Odessa and heads the diocese's department of missionary work, catechesis and religious education, was "earlier summoned to the Security Service of Ukraine over the phone," the representative said.
In a separate development, Ukrainian law enforcement officers searched the apartment of pro-Russian activist Valery Kaurov, who heads the Union of Orthodox Citizens of Ukraine, in Odessa on Tuesday morning.
Kaurov himself has said that he is "out of the reach of law enforcement agencies of Ukraine."
