Mykola Hopainych

Mykola Hopainych

(born December 3, 1982)

Education – trained as a history teacher; in 2006 he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Seminary of the UOC–KP.

2010–2015 – deputy of the Skvyra City Council.

Deputy of the Bila Tserkva City Council (8th convocation) from the European Solidarity party; constituency office: 3 Kniaz Volodymyr Avenue.

Secretary of the Bila Tserkva Eparchy of the OCU.

He wears a military uniform with the patch “GOD’S WARRIOR OF CHRIST,” presenting himself as an OCU chaplain, a senior lieutenant in the Chaplain Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is also seen in a uniform with a “Territorial Defense” patch. As a member of the Standing Commission on Land Relations and the Land Cadastre of the Bila Tserkva City Council, he initiated a vote to strip the UOC–MP of land.

He is described as having taken an active part in assaults on all UOC churches in the city, physically breaking down church doors, smashing windows, and entering places of worship, and making “patriotic” victory statements from the scenes of these alleged actions. According to YouControl, he is listed as the head of a number of OCU parishes (described as taken from the UOC) in the cities of Bila Tserkva, Uzin, and Skvyra, and in the villages of Shkarivka, Drozdy, Mynkivtsi, Zolotukha, Horobiivka, Skvyra, Domantivka, and Fursy.

Kyivshchyna24 on the OCU deputy-cleric:
https://kyivschina24.com/brief/gopajnich-mikola-yaroslavovich/

April 11, 2023: A crowd of activists, with the support of Deputy Hopainych and the Secretary of the Bila Tserkva City Council, Dmytro Kyryshun, came to the cathedral demanding that the keys be handed over to them. They collected signatures from city residents for transferring the UOC religious community to the OCU.

At that moment, believers and clergy were praying on the cathedral steps.

Activists sang patriotic songs and the national anthem outside the cathedral and demanded that it be handed over to the OCU; the faithful began to pray.

“At present, on the cathedral grounds and beyond, people are singing the Anthem of Ukraine, ‘Oi u luzi chervona kalyna’ (‘Oh, in the meadow there is a red viburnum’ – Trans.), and chanting patriotic slogans, ‘Glory to Ukraine!’

In response, parishioners of the Cathedral began singing prayers and walking around the church with crosses.

Participants in the action are holding a general meeting and collecting signatures regarding the transfer of the Transfiguration Cathedral into the fold of the OCU,” reported the channel “News of Bila Tserkva: Espreso.”

Full livestream:

Metropolitan Augustin, the ruling hierarch of the Bila Tserkva Eparchy of the UOC, came out to the organizers of the rally, among whom was City Council deputy and OCU cleric Hopainych. The activists held their ground and told the clergy to “go to Muscovy.” Behind the hierarch’s back, activists chanted, “Down with the Moscow priest.”

A small part of the participants in the anti-church rally, led by deputies Hopainych and Kyryshun, went to the mayor, Dykyi, demanding an extraordinary session “in order to get rid of the Moscow Patriarchate in Bila Tserkva.”

❗ The rally was attended by Bila Tserkva City Council Secretary Dmytro Kyryshun, who stated that on April 27 deputies would adopt a decision to cancel permission for the “MP” to remain in the Transfiguration Cathedral.

“News of Bila Tserkva: Espreso”
https://t.me/espresobc/9812

April 21, 2023: As a deputy, Hopainych is a member of the Standing Commission on Land Relations and the Land Cadastre of the Bila Tserkva City Council. He initiated a vote “to deprive the UOC–MP of land.”

The list included 13 UOC real estate properties.

“The land commission, which met with a full quorum, has just voted to revoke the permanent land-use acts for all religious communities on the territory of the city of Bila Tserkva.

A historic moment,” Hopainych reported, posting draft decisions.
https://t.me/gopajnuch/296

April 27, 2023: In Bila Tserkva, deputies stripped the UOC of the right to use land.

Deputy Hopainych expressed concern and said he wanted UOC property located on the land taken from it, as well as church items, to be subject to expropriation in favor of the OCU.
https://youtu.be/hiWDDLStGoo?t=61

April 21, 2023: A shocking video of OCU supporters in front of a UOC cathedral, in which OCU priest Mykola Hopainych participated, outraged many people, including OCU supporters.

https://youtu.be/_aX2yHT0_ZU?si=cOMQsrvDMJmJvVWj

Hopainych left a comment under the video calling UOC believers “demons”; a screenshot of the comment was reportedly saved:

“We will defeat the demons together; I know everything about them. Christ is Risen!”

The city website “04563” reported that a strange video was circulating online in which representatives of the tanning studio Potemnela spoke provocatively about the Church, including UOC believers. Mykola Hopainych, a City Council deputy from European Solidarity and an OCU priest, together with parishioners, published a video on Pascha that sparked a wave of outraged reactions in the comments.

https://www.04563.com.ua/news/3584199/sokuuce-video-prihilnikiv-pcu-prokomentuvav-svasennik-mikola-gopajnic

Hopainych commented on the video, not condemning it but offering an approving explanation of what his parishioners were doing:

“I want to explain regarding this video. Opposite the cathedral on Haharina Street there is a tanning salon called Potemnela, and the owner’s surname is Labar, which in English is written there as La-Bar (so most people think it is some kind of bar).

That day after the rally, the salon owner and her friend were taking photos by the cathedral, and at the moment of the photo women from the cathedral pounced on them and began cursing them, so the girls bought one of them analgin ‘from the Moscow Patriarchate’ and edited a video.

When I blessed their salon, they filmed a video which they used in the edit. And the young man, dressed as a dog with a collar and leash, symbolizes the cathedral parishioners, who are like slaves led on a leash by Moscow priests.

And the moment when the young man crosses himself and takes a sip of beer is a request to God for help so that he will not drink anymore, and that this was his last sip.

The girls are collecting signatures there against the Moscow Patriarchate – so the parishioners get angry… As for what you see there as LGBT, I did not see that at all. And I did not know what BDSM was until you wrote it here.”

Administrators of the studio’s account replied in the same manner visible in the video. The video has since been deleted, but copies reportedly exist.

July 10, 2023: Hopainych led the seizure of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Bila Tserkva Eparchy of the UOC.

A group of OCU clerics, under the cover of people in military uniform and police, broke down the doors of the historic cathedral, which is protected by law. Supporters of the OCU first broke the wooden doors, and then for three hours broke the metal ones – using an angle grinder, a chainsaw, and a sledgehammer.

In a TV report by BCTV, “In the Bila Tserkva cathedral they will finally pray in Ukrainian,” Hopainych calls himself the rector of the newly seized cathedral, and says he was helped by “some parishioners of the cathedral” – referring to the men who were smashing the doors with a sledgehammer.

The TV channel also contradicts his claim about “parishioners,” writing: “Residents of Bila Tserkva together with representatives of the OCU entered the Transfiguration Cathedral.”

https://youtu.be/b5o4O3wjcNs?si=zPLJ1iMGDrr3emNl

Another clip is described as showing Hopainych telling a cathedral cleric who had locked himself inside to stop resisting, threatening that they would enter anyway and then “remember” his resistance.

He is also described as, as a deputy, directing the attackers in a video titled “How the UOC fights back against the faithful,” where “the faithful” are understood to mean men with sledgehammers breaking down the church doors.

https://t.me/BilaTserkvaBT/15527

The BCTV piece is described as calling them “residents of Bila Tserkva,” not the religious community. One of the men reportedly also contradicted Hopainych’s claim that they were “parishioners,” telling female parishioners that he is Protestant:

https://spzh.eu/ru/news/74753-v-beloj-tserkvi-idet-zakhvat-kafedralnoho-sobora-upts

Hopainych described the violent takeover of the cathedral as “We will drive out the Russian world.”

Metropolitan of Bila Tserkva and OCU spokesman Yevstratii Zoria confirmed that Archpriest Hopainych, together with police and representatives of the OCU eparchy, seized the cathedral from “supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian world,” which is described as official approval by the OCU:

https://t.me/yevstr/320

August 2, 2023: He seized the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC located next to the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC, which Hopainych seized with men in uniform on July 10, 2023.

The deputy and OCU chaplain “climbed in through a small window” into someone else’s church.

He complained that UOC priests had reinforced the doors from the inside against a takeover, but promised to remove the obstacle soon. He shared photos of his actions inside the church, showing no concern for its protected status.

March 21, 2025: Accompanied by police, the priest-deputy seized the UOC Church of the Holy Greatmartyr and Healer Panteleimon.

This was reported by Mykola Hopainych.

In an exclusive comment to Espreso Bila Tserkva, “the chaplain noted that this was the logical conclusion of the process of the community’s transition from the Moscow Patriarchate to the OCU, which took place last year. After legal registration, today the religious community obtained the right to canonical administration of the church.”

https://bc.espreso.tv/pcu-shche-odin-khram-u-biliy-tserkvi-zalishiv-moskovskiy-patriarkhat-i-priednavsya-do-ptsu

March 28, 2023: A UOC church on Zenitnoho Polku Street was seized.

“In Bila Tserkva, representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate vacated the church on Zenitnoho Polku Street. As Mykola Hopainych reports, ‘as they were leaving the premises, they removed the side entrance doors from both sides, took linoleum from the floor, and took everything they could carry out.’ What do you think about such actions?”

July 23, 2024: He initiated a court case regarding the alleged illegality of the privatization of the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles of the Bila Tserkva Eparchy of the UOC.

“Recall that the Moscow Patriarchate privatized the monastery a week before the start of the full-scale war. These actions were carried out by state registrar Nataliia Burimska.

According to City Council deputy Mykola Hopainych, the City Council did not grant any relevant permits, and no commissions were created. The state registrar and the relevant agencies should have paid attention to the fact that the monastery was being transferred into the private ownership of the Moscow Patriarchate,” Espreso Bila Tserkva reported.

The state registrar Nataliia Burimska said the registration was carried out in accordance with current legislation. She declined to comment further.

https://bc.espreso.tv/news-vidoma-data-koli-verkhovniy-sud-rozglyane-spravu-shchodo-privatizatsii-monastirya-marii-magdalini

December 25, 2025: Hopainych shares a livestream showing how the Nativity of Christ is celebrated by the occupiers in the empty Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC, seized in July 2023.

April 22, 2025: He posts an online Pascha greeting from an empty church.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIwHdzgAtYk/

May 12, 2025: Hopainych published an outraged post that Metropolitan Augustin of Bila Tserkva continues issuing IDs to clergy of the cathedral he seized. He says he is concerned that not everyone at the TCC understands church ranks and therefore might not mobilize a UOC cleric who has such an ID into the army. He then made a “report” addressing “the relevant authorities” and calling on them to take action against UOC clergy.