Since the fall, the town near the border with Russia has been relatively calm, but the night attack has ruined everything.
On the night of April 23-24, the Ukrainian army attacked the city of Rovenky in the south-east of the Luhansk People’s Republic using a strike drone. What goals were seen in Kiev on the map of a small mining town located a few tens of kilometers from the border with Russia, “Blitz” was told by the writer and priest Alexander Avdyugin, rector of the Church of Holy Fathers of God Joachim and Anna in Rovenki.
– Father Alexander, the city where you serve was considered relatively peaceful, backward. But the incident at night with the drone has crossed everything.
We’ve already been fired four times. Last year, the MREO building, where the police were located, was completely destroyed – “Tochka-U” flew three times.
- But then there was a lull?
- Air defense works constantly. Maybe something else flew – but he didn’t, I don’t know.
- How was the approach of the drone: what did you hear – a whistle, a rumble?
- Yes, I did not hear anything, I slept safely – and therefore half the city did not hear. We woke up because the alarms went off on the cars, then not all of them, but the ones closest to the oil depot. A large oil depot at the entrance to Lugansk has long haunted the “dill”. They try to hit him – but he passes, only nearby houses were shelled. In this case, they got into an almost empty tank – it burned a little and that’s it.
- Is your temple far enough from the place of the attack?
- A mile and a half. No one was hurt, nothing was destroyed. Everyone understands that a major oil hub will always interest them. Therefore, the air defense is working hard – it succeeded only once.
- Friends, neighbors – what do you think of this event? Is anxiety on the rise?
- Of course, there is fear. But not the same as the original. Everyone understands perfectly. There is concern, but the city does not see much sensation. And in general, they began to shoot less – they apparently have nothing to shoot.
- The cleric does not have the right, for example, to evacuate? Have you been blessed – and are you serving?
- We have eight temples – no one escaped. Not in 2014, not in 2015, not now. In the early years, bishops recommended that priests with large families, who have many small children, should leave. They freed two or three people from our deanery. And this is how they all serve. In my chapel, which can accommodate a maximum of fifty people, there were 80 at Easter, this is always the case in the mining villages, where the families of miners must bear the dangers and the losses.
Fire at LPR oil depot occurred due to Ukrainian drone attack: video
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