Pyrohivtsi. The Seizure of the Holy Paraskeva Church of the UOC, Khmelnytskyi Region, During Which Local Officials Beat Parishioners

Address: Kvitneva Street, village of Pyrohivtsi, Khmelnytskyi region, 31343

On July 24, 2022, OCU activists headed by District Council chairman Oleksandr Chornievych arrived at the Church of St. Paraskeva in the village of Pyrohivtsi, Khmelnytskyi District.

They attempted to seize the church during an ongoing service.

Local officials and OCU supporters first threatened the faithful. When parishioners came out to face them, the attackers assaulted them.

Eyewitnesses report that women were beaten and thrown to the ground. The priest was literally dragged across the earth. The attackers broke the cross belonging to the church rector.

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The police present at the scene did absolutely nothing.

According to one of the parishioners, the rector, Archpriest Oleksandr Kravets, asked them to close the church doors to finish the service in peace. But the head of the district council Chernievych urged the attackers to smash them down and broke the handle. After the end of the prayer service, when the believers appeared on the doorstep, the authorities and OCU activists started dragging them away from the doors.

"I was attacked by our villagers Petro Matveyuk and Razdorozhnyi <...> he shoved me and threw me, and I hit my head against the brick wall of the bell tower. I blacked out," said Lubov, a parishioner of the church. Her disabled son tried to defend her, but the OCU supporters attacked him in a crowd. According to the parishioner, they "apprehended him and dragged him away behind the church grounds".

"But the scariest picture was when they threw our priest down and beat him lying there... Everybody was beating him! It was like a horror movie, I haven't even seen such a thing in movies," says the parishioner. She received a concussion bouncing against the wall.

Another parishioner, Taisia, was also injured in the mass scuffle.

"Petro Matveyuk hit me in the chest with his fist... Doctors say it's your luck that no bone is broken," Taisia said. She was also attacked by a teenager aged 16 who smashed her nose.

"They insulted the father and the mother, an 80-year-old woman, and Maria, who is 85 or 86 years old, was not allowed to say a word. People without crosses, very angry. They insulted, beat and pushed. They threw the priest down the stairs, tore his vestment and broke his cross," Taisia describes what she saw.

"I saw a woman grabbed and thrown near the church on the stones that lined the flowerbed. They grabbed her and threw her from the threshold so that she rolled on the ground," added another parishioner. She asked the OCU "priest" to "stop the scuffle", but he paid her no attention, watching with passion.
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Screenshot from a video message by women's rights activist Viktoria Kokhanovskaya:

Although deputies dismissed Oleksandr Chornievich from his position as head of the district council, he remained a deputy and continued his war against the church. He organized the transfer of UOC churches to the control of the OCU twice more. The police did nothing.

In May 2025, Alexander Chornievich, a deputy of the Khmelnytskyi District Council, calls for riots in the city of Khmelnytskyi to prevent the arrival of the Primate of the UOC, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, and his celebration of divine services in the church.

“The Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, the UOC-MP-ROC, is like a cancerous tumor that must be successfully eradicated!..”