According to the website of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, a military priest, Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC Deputy) Oleg Artemov, died in the explosion of artillery shells fired from Ukrainian territory in the Belgorod region. For Cooperation with the Armed Forces.
“With great sadness in my heart, I received the news of the death of a military priest, Archpriest Oleg Artemov, while performing his pastoral duties during the bombing of the village of Zhuravlevka, Belgorod Region,” said Bronnitsky Bishop Savvaty. .
According to Savvaty, Artemov was a deputy brigade commander for working with chaplains and members of their families. He also served as the clergyman of the Church of St. George the Victorious Suvorov in Novaya Ladoga.
“In his service, he fed sailors on trips around the world in Kamchatka and went on three autonomous trips on a submarine. At the Military Engineering and Technical Institute, he taught future commanders a paternal attitude towards their subordinates, ”said the director.
Oleg Artemov received the honor of a priest in 2017. By origin, he is from the Terek Cossacks, during the years of the Chechen war he was part of the Cossack units, since 1999 he was the rector of the church in the village of Kislovodskaya.
Since 2010, with the rank of military priest, Artemov was a confessor of submarines, then served as a ship’s priest on the scientific ship Admiral Vladimirsky.
On March 23, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported that an artillery shell fired by the Ukraine exploded in the village of Zhuravlevka. As a result, three civilians were injured, two of them in hospital. One house was destroyed and windows damaged in a dozen buildings.
Institute of Military Chaplains
It seems that Father Oleg Artemov became the first Russian military priest to die during the war. In 2009, the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree establishing the institution of military clergy.
The regimental priests were still in the Russian Imperial Army, but the Russian authorities decided not to copy the church-military plan of tsarist Russia.
The Office of Working with Believers was established. The organization formed 242 deputy unit commanders.
Regimental priest in field uniform at the VI International Military-Technical Forum “Army-2020”
Avilov Alexander/Agency “Moscow”
Military priests took part in the operation of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria – in 2016 a Christmas service was held at the Khmeimim airbase. Also, according to media reports, priests of the Russian Orthodox Church participated in the Crimean events in 2014. However, until recently, none of the “clergy” died. However, in 2014, the clergy died in Donbass – on August 4, St. George Church, Archpriest Vladimir Kreslyansky was killed as a result of the shelling of Luhansk, leaving five children. And on May 9, the priest of the UOC-MP Pavel Zhuchenko was shot dead on the highway in the Donetsk region.
Source: Gazeta
