Pukhivka. OCU raiders attacked a UOC church

Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Address: Kyiv region, Pukhivka village, Soborna St., 1A.

A criminal group of OCU activists, with the support of local authorities, launched the process of falsifying documents for the Intercession Church of the UOC.

Having illegally re-registered the church community, a group of raiders tried to seize the church.

The attackers acted aggressively, used violence against believers and journalists.

On September 18, 2022, there was a meeting of local residents in Pukhivka village, at which the audience voted to "transfer" the religious community of the UOC church in honor of the Intercession of the Mother of God into the OCU.

The meeting was announced in the group of the Zazimije territorial community on Facebook, where it was reported about "a general meeting of the members of the religious community of the Holy Protection Church of the Boryspil Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Pukhivka, Brovary district, Kyiv region (parishioners of the Pukhivka Church) on the issue of changing its subordination."

398 people registered at the meeting.

After the speech of OCU "priests", the floor was given to the rector of the UOC Pokrovsky parish, Father Roman Novikov, who said that he did not see his parishioners among the gathered ones, that the religious community of the Intercession Church held a parish meeting three months ago, and the protocol was handed over to the village council.

However, this did not prevent the audience from holding a vote, as a result of which the "religious community" of the Intercession Church of the UOC "moved" to the OCU.

(Source: UOJ)

On November 19, 2022, in the morning, OCU raiders blocked the temple entrance and attacked the believers.

Local OCU activists illegally re-registered the temple and cut off the locks on the church.

According to eyewitnesses, the local territorial defense helped them in committing the crime.

The criminals blocked the entrance to the temple and did not allow the UOC believers in.

"When we came to our Intercession Church for prayer, there were already other people who had been illegally issued documents for the church. We went on the porch and began to pray there. But those people who were inside the church, they are also residents of Pukhivka, and they think that they are praying for Ukraine, and we are praying for Russia," the parishioner of the Intercession Church noted with bitterness.

According to a believer, they stood and prayed, and the criminals pushed the believers further and further to the fence.

"As soon as they realized that there was nowhere else to push us back, they began to beat us. They did not hesitate to beat women, children, or priests," the woman added

.

During the seizure, the believers of the UOC sang the prayer of the Mother of God "My Blessed Queen", the OCU activists sang "Chervona kalyna".

"These people do not pray, but sing songs, but God needs our prayer so that He forgives us our sins, for which God allowed us to go through this," the parishioner said.

The temple’s parishioners also noted that the authorities, while illegally issuing copies of the temple’s documents to the OCU supporters, are coliding the villagers against each other, thereby inciting interfaith hatred.

The OCU activists together with the territorial defense , literally pushed the parishioners out of the temple territory. They beat women, tried to knock out journalists’ camera.

As a result, the police withdrew the raiders from Intercession Church territory. It was decided to collect all the property of the Orthodox community and seal it in a room that would be guarded by the police until the circumstances were clarified. The faithful of the UOC - the real owners of the temple - were not given access to their shrine, unlike the criminal group.

(Source: UOJ)