Icons of the Mother of God survived in the burned-out Volnovakha Holy Transfiguration Church in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) after shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). Archpriest Alexander Kostin, rector of the temple, spoke about this in an interview with Izvestia on Tuesday, March 21.
According to him, the temple completely burned down from the inside, the walls partially remained. Several icons of the Mother of God remained unharmed – the icon cases were melted, and the icons themselves remained undamaged.
“Now they are in the old church for prayer support. Before them, we pray that the Lord would save us and give people the long-awaited peace,” shared the archpriest.
The abbot admitted that despite the fact that the temple is now being restored, he fears that at one moment the shrine could be destroyed again. He noted that now the entire Donbass lives in constant danger, and a shell could arrive at any moment.
“It can fly to any point in Donbass today or tomorrow. <…> After such cases, people will be scared, then there is some kind of rollback. People cannot live in constant stress, they thaw and forget. Then shelling again, and people are again in stress, ”concluded the rector of the temple.
The Holy Transfiguration Church of Volnovakha in March last year was practically destroyed due to shelling by Ukrainian nationalists. Only metal fittings and domes have survived. At the moment, the temple is being actively restored, it has a new dome.
Volnovakha is located near Donetsk, the city was liberated in March 2022, but is regularly shelled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So, on March 13, Volnovakha was subjected to new shelling by Ukrainian militants. Then the number of those killed during the shelling increased to two, two more were injured.
Russia continues a special operation to protect Donbass, whose residents refused to recognize the results of the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine. The decision to start it was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022 against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the shelling of Ukrainian troops.
