OCU cleric personally cuts locks off UOC church during seizure in Cherniavka

OCU cleric Serhiy Yanchuk cut the locks off a UOC church. Collage: UOJ

In the village of Cherniavka, Zhytomyr Region, OCU cleric Serhiy Yanchuk seized the UOC Church of St. Paraskeva, personally cutting the locks off the doors of the shrine and telling the rector that the UOC community had no rights whatsoever.

The seizure was preceded by a conversation in which the church rector, Father Oleksandr, asked to see documents proving ownership of the building. The priest proposed that copies of the meeting minutes, signature lists, and names be provided to the faithful so that the community could review them over several days and state its position.

However, Serhiy Yanchuk rejected these demands and questioned the UOC community’s legal rights.

“What rights do you have here? You are a governing center of the aggressor state, and you still have the audacity to stand here and say that you have the right to review anything? That we somehow owe you a report?” Yanchuk said.

He accused the priest of having lost the “fear of God” and claimed that the UOC clergyman was disgracing both the people and the Church by “serving the enemy” on Ukrainian soil.

“We are doing our work on our own land and in our own church. And you are an enemy of the people and of our Church. I won’t even shake your hand anymore,” Yanchuk snapped, ending the conversation.

Immediately afterward, he began breaking into the church. Once inside, he smiled and described the church property as “Moscow property.”

As the UOJ previously reported, raiders cut the locks off a UOC church in Kuzmyn.

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