Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh reacts to the murder of a Ukrainian teenager in Germany
The Apostolic Exarch in Germany and the Scandinavian countries issued a separate statement in response to the murder of a 17-year-old Ukrainian basketball player in Oberhausen and emphasized that it is unacceptable that young people who have taken refuge in Germany, fleeing the horrors of war, should become targets of hatred, aggression and xenophobia in the country of their new settlement.
This is stated on the website of the Apostolic Exarchate in Germany and Scandinavia.
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian community in Germany was appalled by the news of an attack by a group of teenagers in Oberhausen on two Ukrainian boys and a girl, which resulted in the death of one of the Ukrainians, 17-year-old basketball player Volodymyr Yermakov, and the severe stabbing of the other. A girl who was with the boys on their way home and two other young people were also injured.
Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh expressed his sincere condolences to the family of the deceased young man. He assured them of his prayers for the victims’ spiritual and physical healing. He also expressed concern over the fact that they had been attacked after being asked about their nationality by the perpetrators: “Given that among the Ukrainian refugees in Germany, about 350,000 are children and young people under the age of 18, this trend is a cause for concern and alarm.”
The Apostolic exarch called on the German state authorities responsible for security and order to impartially investigate all the circumstances of the crime and do everything possible to ensure that such tragedies, in which innocent people die, never happen again.
“We pray that every person in our country feels accepted, respected, and protected and that together, we create a society worthy of the twenty-first-century human being, characterized by peace and mutual respect,” said Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh.
The UGCC Department for Information
