Watch Now: “Scheme of Raider Seizures of UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) Churches”

According to the official statement:

The video outlines a multi-stage scheme for the seizure of churches.

The first stage involves a vote on the community’s transition, organized by members of the local authorities or the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The vote can occur anywhere, such as in a local council, community center, school, or stadium, but not in the church itself. This is because those gathered often include individuals with no affiliation to the religious community, as stated in the video by Myriany.

The second stage of the church seizure scheme includes sending minutes of the activists’ unlawful voting for the community’s supposed transition to the jurisdiction of the OCU to the authorities. Myriany notes that the authorities disregard meetings of actual religious communities in which the faithful vote to remain within the OCU. Instead, state officials re-register parishes from the UOC to the OCU against the will of the genuine parishioners.

Myriany states, “In many cases, authorities do not even organize gatherings for transitioning to the OCU but proceed directly with re-registration. For example, in Ivano-Frankivsk, the UOC community filed complaints with the police and the prosecutor’s office against such actions by the authorities and even sought protection from the President, but to no avail.”

The third stage, according to Myriany, involves the actual process of church seizure: “A crowd, often supported by the police and individuals in camouflage, forcefully enters the church premises, breaks down doors, and takes control of the church. The church community attempts to resist, but the forces are unequal. Frequently, doors are forcibly broken down by OCU priests themselves. For instance, several clerics associated with the OCU, including its spokesperson Yevstratii Zoria, used hammers, crowbars, and grinders to break down the doors of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC in Bila Tserkva.”

As a result, UOC faithful are left with no choice but to pray in homes, barns, and open spaces, while the seized churches often remain empty.

Myriany emphasizes that believers do not stay in the church with the OCU but remain loyal to their priest. For instance, the Shepetivka cathedral community now prays in their homes, and the exiled community in Trebukhiv village even prays in a tent in the forest. Meanwhile, the seized churches are either entirely or nearly empty, as noted in the video.