The museum received an icon from a church damaged by shelling in the Sumy region

The icon “The Virgin of Okhtyrka” – one of the most revered icons of Slobozhanshchyna – was transferred to our Museum. The artefact came to us from the village of Velyka Pysarivka in the Sumy region, and the initiator of the transfer was Andrii Pasiuha, a participant in the ATO in 2014-2015 and now a priest in the Church of St. Nicholas of the OCU.

The temple was seriously damaged due to the Russian shelling at the beginning of March 2024: all the windows were broken, the interiors were damaged – and the plasterboard ceiling fell. The church is new, built in the 2010s, but it is not certainly known who gave the icon to the church: the priest says that older people often bring family artefacts to the church so that they are kept in a worthy place.

The icon, destroyed as a result of shelling, is a witness of human prayers, joys and sorrows, but at the same time – a witness of the great crime of the Russian Federation against the Ukrainian people. Having survived years of horrors, the ancient image, made on a wooden board, was almost lost due to the influx of the latest Russian barbarians. Nothing is sacred for Russia – this is a fact that does not need proof. So Father Andrii decided that the icon would be safer in our museum. Thank you for your trust! Let’s keep this artefact as evidence of the modern crimes of Putin’s Russia.