Mykola Medynskyi

Nikolai Medinsky

Cleric of the UGCC

UGCC cleric Nikolai Medinsky has been engaged in harassment and persecution of Orthodox Christians since 2017.

During his time in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Medinsky organized one of the first violent seizures of UOC churches on Ukrainian territory since the 1990s.

The UGCC cleric is known for the systematic incitement of hatred against UOC clergy and believers, as well as open calls for violence and reprisals.

Around 2023, Medinsky relocated to the Kyiv region, where he began participating in the seizure of UOC churches by OCU activists.

🔴On October 18, 2017, despite a ruling by the Ivano-Frankivsk District Administrative Court, a group of UGCC clerics seized the Holy Annunciation Church of the UOC in the city of Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The perpetrators cut the locks and barricaded themselves inside the church building.

On the eve of the seizure, the Coordinating Council of Military Chaplains — whose members include UGCC priests Nikolai Medinsky, Mykhailo Arsenych, Yuriy Atamanyuk, Vasyl Dovhanyuk, Mykhailo Dzyuba, Nikolai Ostafiychuk, and others — announced a complete ban on religious services by the Orthodox community in the Annunciation Church.

The raiders used physical force against Orthodox Christians.

(Source: Press Service of the Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia Eparchy of the UOC)

🔴On October 29, 2017, Medinsky called for the de facto seizure of yet another UOC church.

«Another hornet's nest of the Moscow Church (effectively a subdivision of the FSB) has been set up 500 meters from a strategic facility», wrote Medinsky.

The chaplain appealed to patriots to somehow respond to this «outrageous fact».

(Source: SPZH)

🔴On February 9, 2018, at a press conference at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, Medinsky called for repression against UOC believers and clergy.

Speaking about the UOC's Tithe Church in Kyiv, which faced the threat of destruction, the controversial chaplain stated: «When FSB operatives use icons, vestments, and crosses as elements of their criminal activity in support of the Moscow chauvinist empire, excuse me, but this is not spirituality, this is not a Church, and this is not a chapel».

In a subsequent address, Medinsky explained what should «properly be done» with the UOC.

«We need to unite around demands to ban in Ukraine any activity of those structures and organizations that are under the direct influence of the Moscow empire, and the Moscow Patriarchate occupies first place here as the ideological mouthpiece of the "Russian world" on our land», said the UGCC chaplain. «We are not persecuting anyone, but we must demand that all of them leave our territory until the war is over. Until Russia acknowledges its crimes against the Ukrainian people, until it repents before the entire world for the atrocities committed, until it compensates for the losses suffered by the Ukrainian people, until it returns the stolen territories, until it takes the name that truly belongs to it: the ROC in Ukraine. We must strive to restore God's truth and Ukrainian truth».

🔴On April 5, 2023, during the acute phase of the state expropriation of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Medinsky appeared at the walls of the monastery.

Anti-church activists handed the UGCC cleric a megaphone to deliver a speech in which he effectively called for the seizure of the Lavra.

🔴On September 5, 2023, OCU supporters seized the UOC Church of Saints Boris and Hlib in Vyshhorod.

A group of raiders used a hammer and chisel to break down the doors of the UOC church. As seen in the video, police did not interfere with their unlawful actions.

Nikolai Medinsky took part in the intrusion into the church.

(Source: SPZH)

🔴In September 2023, during a sermon at the OCU-seized Church of St. Nicholas the Hermit in the village of Novosilky, Vyshhorod district, Medinsky called on his parishioners to «cleanse» Ukraine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The UGCC cleric declared that «we must cleanse and help cleanse those around us… from the presence of the spiritual occupier», meaning the UOC.

According to him, the Church «has been ceaselessly shaping the presence of Russia in the consciousness of the Ukrainian people for decades».

Describing the seizure of the Boris and Hlib Church in Vyshhorod as «joyful news» and «the final cleansing from the spiritual occupier», Medinsky called for doing the same in other villages and districts of the region.

«We must try to support the people there and gradually join in this work, because we must completely cleanse the city of Vyshhorod, the entire district, and every village — cleanse them completely».

🔴On October 6, 2024, a group of OCU raiders seized the UOC Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Novosilky, Kyiv region.

The attack on the church was led by Nikolai Medinsky. According to reports from the scene, the UGCC cleric used force against female parishioners of the church.