US congresswoman demands answers from Kiev over church crackdown
A US congresswoman has demanded answers from Ukraine’s ambassador over ongoing attempts to seize a parish of Ukraine’s largest Orthodox denomination in the western part of the country and hand it over to a Kiev-backed schismatic church.
In a post on X on Friday, Florida Republican Anna Luna said that despite her previous warnings, the Nativity church in Kuzmin in Khmelnitsky Region remains under pressure from a local “oligarch” who she claims is “coercing residents to force an illegal seizure of the parish.”
“I expect [Ukrainian ambassador to the US] Olga Stefanishina to explain herself to fellow members in my office this week,” Luna wrote. The envoy has yet to comment on the request.
Earlier this week, the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported that the Kuzmin parish was re-registered to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) using falsified paperwork, with parishioners fearing that seizure is imminent.
The dispute kicked off in late December when the Kuzmin diocese reported that local powerbrokers initiated a public gathering to discuss the transfer of the parish from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to the OCU. However, the diocese said the meeting – which it claimed was called to create the appearance of community support – was dominated by people specifically brought in from outside the village, making a potential handover illegal.
The diocese said that to stave off the seizure, it would seek support from advocacy groups in the EU and US.
A similar controversy erupted in Ukraine’s Kirovograd Region, where parishioners for the St. Great Martyr George the Victorious in Priutivka reported threats and attempted seizures by OCU-linked activists. Parishioners also sought support from US officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the country’s largest religious body by number of parishes and members. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, it has been subjected to a sweeping crackdown by Kiev, with Ukrainian officials accusing it of maintaining ties to Moscow, despite cutting all ties with the Russian Orthodox Church – which considers the OCU to be schismatic – in 2022.
