Ukranian Authorities Seize Another Church and Beat Up Orthodox Christians

Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Vyzhenka, in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine. © Photo: Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate

During the week of Pascha (Easter), schismatics from the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” seized a church in the Chernivtsi region and beat believers in another, as reported on the website of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate.

“On May 8, 2024, in the village of Vyzhenka, Chernivtsi region of Ukraine, raiders belonging to the schismatic structure of the OCU forcibly seized the ancient St. Nicholas Church of the [canonical] Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is an architectural monument of local importance,” the report says.

At the same time, according to the department, schismatics tried to seize the nearby Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the village of Chernoguzy, where parishioners of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church were beaten and the temple doors were broken into.

Over the past year, the Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the modern history of the country. Referring to its connection with Russia, local authorities in different regions of Ukraine decided to ban the activities of the UOC, and a bill was introduced to the country's parliament to effectively ban it in Ukraine. The authorities have imposed sanctions against some representatives of the UOC clergy. The Security Service of Ukraine began to open criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC and conduct “counterintelligence activities” — searches of bishops and priests, churches and monasteries, in search of evidence of “anti-Ukrainian activities.”

Source: ria.ru (Russian)