OCU adherents seize church in Bilovezhi restored by UOC efforts

Alexander Nevsky’s Church in the village of Bilovezhi Pershi. A photo: novynarnia.com

Representatives of the OCU seizureв the temple restored by efforts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Bilovezhi Pershi of the district centre Bakhmach, Chernihiv region, reports a UOJ source in the Chernihiv region.

A group of people from the OCU took possession of the key to the door of the church, putting pressure on the builders who were completing the work for the consecration of the throne planned for tomorrow.

It is known that the scene was attended by the film crew of Channel, which came specially to “create a picture of natural and legal penetration” into the temple. Whether representatives of the rural authorities were present at the scene is still unknown.

The source also noted that the Konotop mayor Artem Semenikhin, who uses the situation to raise his political rating among the nationalist electorate before the elections of local authorities and mayors of cities to be held at the end of October this year, may be involved in organizing the provocation. 

The source added that the invaders are currently considering a further strategy. According to one of the ideas, all further actions of the legal owners to return the temple will be covered in the media controlled by them "as an attempt to raider seizure by Moscow priests", and during this time, with the assistance of people interested in power, documents granting them the ownership of the temple will be issued.

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