Media report the shooting dead of a priest at a militant checkpoint

OstroV has reported that an Orthodox priest, Father Pavlo Zhuchenko was shot dead at a pro-Russian militant checkpoint in Konstantinovka [Donetsk oblast] when asking the militants to stop their activities.  The information, first tweeted by OstroV editor Serhiy Harmash, cites a source in Konstantinovka.

The press service of the Horlivka and Slovyansk Eparchy of the Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate informed OstroV that the dead man had been a priest in the eparchy, but had been defrocked.

OstroV reports the Konstantinovka police as saying that all the circumstances are being investigated, and “the personal data of the man established.”