The publication recalled the bishop's biography. Oleh Vedmedenko was born on 18 September 1961 in Lutsk. Before entering church ministry in 1997, he worked at the city's civil airport. In that same year, 1997, he founded the Bible School of Spiritual Perfection at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and at the turn of the century he began serving in structures that later became known as the Ukrainian Independent Apostolic Orthodox Church (UNAOC).
The path to the episcopate
In 2006, Vedmedenko broke with the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate, where he served as a deacon, and on 5 November of that year he was ordained a priest in the UAOC. In 2012 he was consecrated a bishop, and from 2013 he headed the Volyn and Galicia Eparchy. From 2015 to 2019 he was the primate of the UNAOC.
The UNAOC belongs to the autocephalous churches of Ukraine, that is, independent Orthodox structures not subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate. For such communities, the main issue remains recognition by other Orthodox churches, and the head of the church usually occupies a prominent place in that process. Vedmedenko was one of the notable names of this movement in Volyn.
In recent years he served as rector of the "Christ's Resurrection" church in Lutsk. The parish was inherited by the bishop's son Vasyl, also a priest. Another son, Pavlo, serves in the same church. The bishop's wife is not named in publications. Vedmedenko was also a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, and it was the union that published an obituary on his passing.
Circumstances of the death
According to the police version, on 14 November at around 21:00, 22-year-old Roman Savych from the village of Zhydychyn, driving a Mazda 6 belonging to his wife, drove onto the sidewalk of Vasyl Moisei Avenue and struck 60-year-old Oleh Vedmedenko. The driver, according to the investigation, was intoxicated and tried to flee toward the parking lot of the Promin shopping and entertainment center. He was detained by passersby and patrol police officers.
Savych had already been convicted. In 2020, as ZAXID reported, he attacked Lutsk municipal guards with a gas canister and was sentenced under Part 2 of Article 350 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to three years of restriction of liberty. In October 2021, the Volyn Court of Appeal upheld this sentence. The punishment was not being enforced.
Death and the first court decision
On the morning of 15 November, the bishop died in the Lutsk City Clinical Hospital. A case was opened under Part 3 of Article 286-1 of the Criminal Code, which provides for liability for a traffic violation by a person in a state of intoxication that resulted in the death of a person. The driver was detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows a suspect to be detained without a court decision if there are grounds. The lawyer for the deceased's family, Roman Khomych, repeatedly spoke in media comments about the need for a thorough investigation.
On the evening of 15 November, a litia was served in the church, and on 16 November Vedmedenko was given a funeral service at 14:00 and buried in the courtyard of the "Christ's Resurrection" church, where he served as rector. On the same day, 16 November, the Lutsk City and District Court, presided over by Judge Alla Paliushko, considering the investigation's request, imposed a preventive measure on the driver in the form of detention for 60 days, without the right to post bail.
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