Kotsiubynske, Seizure of the Holy Great-Martyr George Church of the UOC by The Professional Raiders, While Police Stood Idle

Address: 2 Ponomareva Street, Kotsyubinskoe, Kyiv Region, 02000

The militants burst into the church during a service and grabbed the priest, twisting his arms behind his back.

On February 3, 2024, illegal territorial-community “gatherings” were held in Kotsiubynske, during which falsified documents were produced for two UOC churches simultaneously.

The criminal group was led by the former head of the Kyievo-Sviatoshyn District State Administration, Serhii Voznyi.

Voznyi and his team, who had been decorated by OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko, were behind numerous document forgeries concerning Orthodox churches.

Representatives of the religious communities were deliberately barred from attending the “community meeting” in Kotsiubynske.

Fr. Serhiy said that there were about 30 people who entered the House of Culture, while the members of the Assumption and St. George's communities were 3-4 times more.

According to him, his St. George's parish had already voted for allegiance to the UOC several months ago. At that time, there were 168 people on the lists of parishioners. A similar vote was also held in the Assumption temple.

Nevertheless, after both communities were not allowed into their own meeting, they decided to publicly reaffirm their allegiance to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Onuphry, near the walls of the House of Culture. First, the Assumption community voted, followed by the St. George's community.

On the morning of March 13, 2024, a group of people in military uniform stormed the Holy George Church of the UOC in the middle of a service.

The priest was seized and dragged outside, while parishioners were told that the church was being transferred to the OCU.

Now the church is closed; the OCU took it away from the parishioners and does not conduct liturgies there itself.