Oleksandr Zarubin

Oleksandr Zarubin

Date of birth: April 30, 1983

Mayor of the city of Boyarka since November 3, 2025; Head of the Boyarka City Territorial Community since November 24, 2020.

Oleksandr Zarubin became one of the representatives of local authorities who most actively supported the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Already at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Zarubin organized a meeting with the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the territory of the Boyarka Territorial Community.

The official issued an ultimatum to the clergy – either transfer to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine or lose all churches in the region.

After receiving a refusal, Zarubin gradually carried out his threat and personally facilitated violent seizures of churches.

In late June 2022, during a session of the Boyarka City Council, Zarubin announced an upcoming mass transfer of all city religious communities from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

As Zarubin stated, he had personally and repeatedly proposed that UOC clergy transfer to the OCU, but received a negative response, and now the time had come to transfer communities through the efforts of the authorities.

Source: UOJ

On August 21, 2022, a meeting of residents of the village of Tarasivka (which belongs to the Boyarka Territorial Community) took place, at which those gathered decided to transfer the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos Church of the UOC to the OCU.

At the same time, more than 300 believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were praying in front of the church, which had been closed by the authorities.

Zarubin personally took part in organizing the illegal meeting, spoke at it, and participated in the voting.

On February 24, 2023, representatives of the Boyarka Territorial Community placed advertising billboards throughout the city inviting residents to come on February 25 to a community meeting to decide the fate of St. Michael’s Church of the UOC in Boyarka.

According to reports from the scene, Zarubin was the organizer of this campaign.

The advertising campaign contained hate rhetoric directed against the parishioners and clergy of St. Michael’s Church of the UOC. In particular, one billboard read: “There is no place for the Moscow Patriarchate in our community!”

Source: UOJ

On May 6, 2023, Zarubin took direct part in the raider seizure of St. Michael’s Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Boyarka.

He coordinated the actions of the local Voluntary Formation of the Territorial Community (DFTO).

Source: UOJ

On the morning of September 7, 2024, a group of church raiders affiliated with the OCU entered the territory of the Intercession Church of the UOC in Boyarka, Kyiv Region. They blocked all entrances to the shrine and broke the locks.

Force support for the perpetrators was provided by the local Voluntary Formation of the Territorial Community (DFTO).

Eyewitnesses report that Zarubin helped organize the raider seizure of the church.

Source: UOJ