Mykhalcha. Police and OCU Militants Seized a Church
UOC Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos Church
Address: Chernivtsi Region, the village of Mykhalcha
The UOC Dormition Church in the village of Mykhalcha became one of the first Orthodox shrines targeted by OCU raiders.
OCU activists launched the process of a raider takeover of the church in 2019, virtually immediately after creating their structure.
The Orthodox community’s struggle for its right to pray in its own church lasted almost four years. The faithful did not leave their church for a single day.
The UOC community and clergy endured falsified documents and several attempts at violent assaults. In April 2022, the church was seized by armed militants together with police.
February 2019 – The church’s religious community held a parish meeting at which, by an overwhelming majority, it decided to remain within the jurisdiction of the UOC.
That same day, in the village council building, unknown activists held a meeting of the territorial community.
At that meeting, a decision was made to unlawfully take away the church belonging to the UOC religious community. After that meeting, about ten activists led by OCU clergy went to the church, demanding that they be given the keys.
The faithful, together with the priest, stood up in defense and prevented the unlawful seizure of the church.
(Source: Facebook page “Faithful of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna Eparchy of the UOC”)
On April 21, 2019, during a service, representatives of the OCU came to the church with a warning that after the Paschal holidays they would come to take the keys to the church.
August 25, 2019 – OCU supporters from the village of Mykhalcha, led by geography teacher Vasyl Maskal, went to storm the Dormition Church.
At about 1:30 p.m., when some of the parishioners had gone to rest after the Liturgy, the attackers removed one section of the fence and burst onto the grounds.
However, they were unable to enter the church, because believers stood in the doorway, blocking the entrance.
While the main group of OCU supporters stormed the church doors, another activist, holding a hammer, ran around the church grounds trying to knock the locks off the gate.
The police who were present at the scene did not react in any way to the raiders’ actions.
November 1, 2019, between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. – During a service, parishioners heard a strange pounding.
As it turned out, OCU activists were trying to break down the church door using a homemade battering ram.
About 30 OCU raiders gathered near the church’s entrance door, while 4–6 people struck it with a log fitted with handles on the sides.
Five OCU clerics were present on site. They did not allow the stunned believers to approach the doors.
The raiders began pushing the faithful; one UOC parishioner was sprayed with tear gas, after which the man was forced to file a complaint with law enforcement.
OCU activists broke down the church door and entered inside. Three or four parishioners of the canonical Church nevertheless managed to get inside their own church together with the attackers, and when the police arrived they began pushing the offenders back out into the street.
By about 10:00–11:00 p.m., a large police unit of 20–30 officers arrived at the church, and the OCU activists were forced to retreat.
December 23, 2019 – At a regular session of the Mykhalcha village council, local deputies voted to grant permission to develop a land-management project to allocate the land plot under the UOC church in the village of Mykhalcha (Storozhynets district, Chernivtsi Region) for permanent use by the OCU.
The issue was placed on the agenda despite ongoing court proceedings initiated by the UOC religious community.
December 12, 2020 – OCU activists carried out another assault.
Dozens of raiders wearing identifying red armbands came to the church grounds with a huge blue-and-yellow state flag and tools for breaking doors.
Law enforcement representatives and an OCU cleric were present on site.
The raiders were armed with brass knuckles, sticks, and tear gas. OCU supporters damaged cameras, tore down a siren, and pushed the watchmen beyond the church fence, blocking their re-entry. To prevent UOC believers from entering the grounds, they hung chains on the gates. People trying to approach their church were shoved back with the words, “Moscow – out.”
Only the intervention of the KORD special police unit managed to restrain the criminal group.
Believers succeeded in driving the attackers off the church grounds.
April 10, 2022, 7:00 a.m. – Parishioners who came for Sunday worship were unable to enter their church grounds.
The church was blocked with chains, and armed people were present on the grounds.
All entrances to the village were blocked so that no one could come to the community’s aid.
According to testimony from the Chernivtsi–Bukovyna Eparchy, police officers were present on the grounds of the Dormition Church and did nothing to prevent the raider seizure.
Moreover, Sviatoslav Kyshlar, deputy head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Chernivtsi Region, personally directed the expulsion of the UOC Orthodox community from the church grounds.
The raiders cut off the locks on the church doors and seized the church. It later emerged that militants from the radical far-right organization “Tryzub named after Stepan Bandera” had been brought in to storm the church.
КУ ст. 35 (свобода вероисповедания) · ЕСПЧ ст. 9 · Нормы ООН