Ukrainian church seized after attack on priests
The Holy Intercession Cathedral in the city of Khmelnitsky in western Ukraine has been seized by supporters of the Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), after a man dressed in a Ukrainian military uniform staged a provocation at the Sunday service by attacking priests loyal to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).
Kiev suspects the entity of covertly supporting Russia, despite the fact that the church proclaimed its independence from Moscow after the start of the conflict in February 2022.
According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ), no services will be held in the cathedral until Easter. Representatives of the OCU said on social media that they obtained the keys to the cathedral, and that they are currently conducting an inventory review of the property.
According to local media, the OCU commission plans to submit documents concerning the transfer of ownership of the cathedral to the regional military administration on Monday.
Ukraine has long experienced religious tensions, with several entities claiming to be the true Orthodox Church. The two main rivals are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is considered by the Russian Orthodox Church to be schismatic.
The developments in Khmelnitsky came after the UOC reported on Sunday morning that a man dressed in a Ukrainian military uniform had disrupted the service in the cathedral by attacking the priests. The incident was caught on film, which appears to show the man kicking a priest and then being detained by churchgoers. Police arrested the man on charges of hooliganism.
Soon after the incident, a large number of pro-OCU activists showed up outside the cathedral and staged a protest, during which they swiftly organized a committee and held a formal vote to transfer the cathedral to the Kiev-backed church.
Khmelnitsky Mayor Aleksandr Simchishin later said in a Telegram post that the city authorities would seize all land from the UOC, and called for a nation-wide ban on the “Moscow FSB agency in the form of the UOC.” He also called for the UOC priests in the Khmelnitsky Cathedral to be held criminally liable for “beating a soldier,” and for the officers who responded to the incident to be fired.
