Shock claim: OCU militants defile altar as toilet in Chernivtsi cathedral
OCU militants on the cathedral grounds. Photo: UOJ
For several hours on June 17, 2025, while OCU militants held the seized Holy Spirit Cathedral in Chernivtsi, they desecrated the altar by turning it into a toilet and also used it as a smoking area. This was reported by several UOC representatives.
In particular, Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, in remarks following a court hearing on June 18, stated that OCU militants, during the seizure of the cathedral, “entered the altar” and relieved themselves there.
Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi, speaking the day after the seizure, said that the militants committed “such vile acts in the altar that they cannot even be spoken of aloud, satisfying their needs there.”
Cathedral parishioner Ivan Khmelevskyi, in an interview with Tetiana Tsaruk, reported that the attackers used holy water buckets as toilets.
“I’ll put it bluntly – they defecated there. It was inside the cathedral: in the altar and in the vestry,” Khmelevskyi said.
Recall that earlier it became known who participated in the seizure of the UOC church in Chernivtsi.
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