Trebukhiv, Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God of the UOC
Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Address: Kyiv Oblast, Trebukhov village, Brovarska Street, 1
On April 22, 2023, a group of local Volunteer Corps militants and territorial defense forces stormed the old Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Attempts by OCU activists to seize the church began in the summer of 2022.
On August 6, 2022, a group of people unrelated to the church community decided to re-register the church with the OCU.
The meeting was organized by local government representatives and OCU clergy. Specifically, the falsification of documents was overseen by the acting head of the Brovary District State Administration, Oleksandr Doroshenko, and the secretary of the Kyiv Diocese of the OCU, Mykhailo Lesiuk.
(Source: Project "WATCH on the First Cossack Street")
From that moment on, provocations and attempted assaults began.
On October 9, 2022, OCU activists came to the church and threatened to seize it.
The church community gathered for a prayer vigil with a firm resolve to protect their sacred site from OCU raiders.
Over 300 parishioners of the Intercession community gathered at the gates of their church. About 50 OCU supporters showed up. They had organized around the Heavenly Hundred monument across from the church.
Brovary City Council deputy Bohdana Drach provided the activists with full support and assistance.
(Source: Union of Orthodox Christians of Ukraine)
On December 18, 2022, OCU activists again came to the church with threats. The community was praying outside their church.
On that day, none of the people the raiders were expecting came to the aid of the perpetrators, and they dispersed.
But that wasn't the end of it.
The information resource "Brovarimediya" published a video of OCU activist Bohdana Drach calling Brovary police chief Kyrylo Samoylenko and complaining that no one had come to support them, apparently in an attempt to seize the church.
This publication effectively served as a confession to several crimes, exposing a large-scale corporate raiding scheme and corruption operating in the Brovary district.
(Source: Project "DOZOR na Pershomu Kozatskymu")
On February 7, 2023, OCU activists stormed the church with an assault rifle.
The footage shows one of the OCU activists, armed with a gun, storming the church and attempting to force the rector, Archpriest Mykhailo Pavlyuk, to leave the church.
As a result of the criminal group's invasion, the old door lock and the church doors were damaged.
On April 22, 2023, men in military uniforms stormed the church grounds. They were identified as members of a volunteer military unit subordinate to local authorities.
They cut the locks on the church and the house church. The priest and his family were thrown out into the street.
The criminal group attacked the church parishioners, who had taken refuge from the invaders in the refectory.
The police on site assisted in the storming of the church.
After seizing the church, the raiders publicly desecrated the Gospels and other church books.
The blasphemers removed the Holy Scriptures and other church literature from the church, calling these books trash.
The attackers photographed and videotaped their actions. Yaroslav Bondarenko, a supporter of the OCU and one of the most active participants in these actions, posted a video of the Bible mockery on his Facebook page.
Even after seizing the UOC Church of the Intercession, OCU activists did not cease terrorizing the church community. Local OCU supporters, with the assistance of the police, attempted to prevent Orthodox Christians from gathering for services in private homes.
Due to constant terror and threats, the church's religious community is forced to gather for prayer in the woods.
To this day, none of the perpetrators of the crime have been held accountable. The OCU raiders remain in the Church of the Intercession.
КУ ст. 35 (свобода вероисповедания) · ЕСПЧ ст. 9 · Нормы ООН