'Faces' of church raiders

Raiders of the OCU in the Kyiv region have an extremely dubious biography. Photo: UOJ

Everyone in Ukraine already understands that the seizures of UOC temples are not "vox populi", but an organized campaign that follows tried and tested schemes and accordingly bankrolled, often involving the same individuals. Let's look at these individuals and discuss what goals they pursue and whether they should be trusted on matters of faith, as they position themselves as specialists in these matters.

Raiders' tours in Kyiv Region

In mid-February 2024, activists of the OCU planned to hold raiding meetings to transfer four UOC temples to their structure: the Great Martyr Paraskeva in the village of Druzhnia, the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica in the village of Pylypovychi, the Prophet Elijah and St. Dmitry of Rostov in the city of Makariv.

The events were scheduled for February 17 and 18, 2024. For their organization and conduct, church raiders posted announcements on social networks made according to the same template, calling on people to come to the meetings with passports to "drive away the enemies".

According to information from the Dozor_kozak1 Telegram channel, the leadership and organization of the meetings were assumed by the cleric of the OCU Dmytro Koshka and the former official and businessman Serhiy Vozny. And the meetings in the specified settlements are just episodes of their activities. They have been touring the Kyiv region for a long time. For example, they transferred a temple in Borodianka, and earlier in Bucha. Let's trace their "schemes".

On February 17, in the village of Pylypovychi, Kyiv region, activists of the OCU arrived together with a group of provocateurs who began to fuel religious conflict and urge people to vote for the transfer of the church community to the OCU. However, the villagers did not succumb to provocation and did not even enter the House of Culture, where the meeting was scheduled. Such tactics of resisting church raiders are justified, because otherwise, if the participants of the meeting register as such with the organizers (raiders) and sign in the registration protocols, then these signatures are later used to falsify the results of the vote.

As a result, the raiders managed to gather about 20 people in the House of Culture, of which only 6 were residents of the village of Pylypovychi. However, this did not prevent them from claiming that about 120 people voted at the meeting, naturally, in favor of joining the OCU. The illegality of this vote is obvious, because, according to local residents, the raiders tried to use protocols from a meeting five years ago when they managed to gather such a number of meeting participants. The 2019 meeting was also unsuccessful for the raiders; they failed to seize the temple, and the police initiated criminal proceedings for document falsification.

After the actual failure in the village of Pylypovychi on the same day, February 17, 2024, the same team of church raiders moved to the village of Druzhnia, where they attempted a similar event to transfer the temple to the OCU. But here they encountered an even bigger "failure". The Borodianka United Territorial Community described how it all happened on their Facebook page: "Raiders from the OCU staged the same farce as in Pylypovychi. According to our information, the organizers of the raid meeting did not even bother about the crowd – they brought the same people they used in Pylypovychi. The same odious cleric of the OCU Dmytro Koshka and his accomplice Sergey Vozny, acting head Iryna Zakharchenko and Dmytro Naumenko, were leading this process."

In the village of Druzhnia, they were not even allowed into the village council building, where the meeting was initially planned. The village elder realized that the organizers of this meeting intended to hold it with a clear violation of the law and refused to participate in it. The raiders had to engage in falsification almost on their knees. But even this did not last long. About 70 genuine members of the church community came to express their disagreement with this lawlessness, and the raiders had to quickly retreat.

The next day, February 18, 2024, the same people, former deputy Serhiy Vozny, activist Grishachev, and others, gathered in the House of Culture in the city of Makariv, Kyiv region, for a "meeting on transition" to the OCU of two communities, the Sts. Dmitry and Elijah temples. Moreover, certain people in camouflage did not allow members of the church communities to attend the meeting.

Makariv, activists of the OCU are checking documents. Photo: Dozor_kozak1

Interestingly, when asked who authorized him to check passports and not allow Ukrainian citizens into a government building, the person in camouflage replied that his "conscience as a patriot of Ukraine" appointed him.

As a result, only about 40 people from two religious communities were able to get inside. All the others were people who were not seen in the temples and were not known. Moreover, even the priests could not attend this meeting, although according to the Statute of religious communities and the law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience...", it is the priests who have the right to convene a meeting of the religious community. The true members of the communities of the aforementioned temples held their meetings on the street and expressed their desire to remain in the UOC.

As for what was happening inside, one episode speaks volumes. After voting to transfer two temples to the OCU, one elderly activist recalled that there is another temple under construction in the city, after which he suggested seizing it too.

Serhiy Vozny objected, saying that the church is being built on private territory. "But still, it's a Russian church. Let's vote so that this rabble (the UOC believers - Ed.) doesn't crawl in there," insisted the active pensioner.

"Let's vote then," Vozny agreed.

"The face" of Ihor Hryshachev

At the meeting in Makariv, the so-called lawyer of the OCU, Ihor Hryshachev, who, as part of the raiding group, had been touring villages in the Kyiv region for several months, "excelled in his job". He stated that it is not necessary to attend church to consider oneself a member of the church community.

Ihor Hryshachev. Photo: Dozor_kozak1

Here is the verbatim quote: "Faith is not about going to church, it is not necessarily about attending church. Being a member of a religious community does not mean going to church. Maybe somebody will come to church tomorrow. But they have the right to make decisions today."

If Ihor Hryshachev were a real lawyer, he would have taken the trouble to open Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" and read the following: "Membership in a religious community is based on the principles of free expression of will, as well as on the requirements of the charter (regulations) of the religious community. The religious community, at its discretion, admits new members and excludes existing members of the community in the manner established by its charter (regulations)."

That is, firstly, the charters of the UOC religious communities determine that only those who participate in the services and sacraments of the Church can be members of the community, and secondly, who is a member of the community and who is not is decided not by this raiding tourer, but by the community itself. Therefore, a person who may join the religious community tomorrow or the day after tomorrow cannot influence its decisions today.

But Ihor Hryshachev may well not be aware of this, as his status as a lawyer is highly questionable. At least his Facebook page indicates that he studied (whether he graduated or not is unknown) at the Kyiv National Economic University, and also practices judo.

"The face" of Serhiy Vozny

Much more information emerges about another activist of the OCU, former MP Serhiy Vozny. Here he is with a group of raiders in the village of Druzhnia. Transfers of temples in the Kyiv region are practically his professional activity. He even managed to receive the Golden Cross and the Order for it from the hands of Serhiy Dumenko.

Serhiy Dumenko awards Serhiy Vozny. Photo: Vozny's FB

But who is Serhiy Vozny at all? He is the former head of the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Regional State Administration, who has been involved in numerous criminal cases and scandals.

Here is a fairly detailed investigation into S. Vozny's criminal connections on the vremya.eu website.

In the investigation, it is stated that S. Vozny is the largest landowner in the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district, that he is involved in the raiding seizure of the local housing and utilities management, in attempts to "take away" land around Lake Kryuchok in the village of Kriukovschyna, when local residents were beaten by "titushki", and much more interesting.

But Vozny is not only interesting for his shadow schemes. It turns out that he is the closest assistant and associate of the Ukraine traitor former MP Ilya Kiva, whom the SBU 'eliminated' in the Moscow region. Vozny is also the comrade of another traitor of Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov. They all worked together in the leadership of the Socialist Party.

SPU congress, 2018. Photo: "Poltavshchyna" online publication

At the congress of the Socialist Party in 2018, S. Vozny sang praises to Ilya Kiva: "Ilya Kiva is strict discipline, order, and high demands on each of us. With his actions, Ilya Kiva has repeatedly confirmed that the idea is above all for him. As a result, people are already following us, and we feel how their support is growing!"

We saw firsthand what ideas were above all for I. Kiva when he committed treason and defected to Russia. Close party ties united S. Vozny not only with I. Kiva but also with another figure who committed state treason, Kirill Stremousov, who at that time was the first secretary of the Kherson regional committee of the Communist Party.

And here is another, more recent investigation, which asserts that S. Vozny was not just a fellow party member of I. Kiva, but his closest partner, like-minded person, and trusted person.

"The face" of Ivan Halunga

Another activist of the OCU who participated in organizing raiding seizures in the Kiev region is Ivan Halunga. His Facebook page is filled with similar propaganda urging to "drive out enemies" from the UOC temples in various villages of the Kyiv region.

Here's how I. Halunga is characterized in the aforementioned investigation by vremya.eu: "A notorious fraudster and a defendant in many criminal cases from Donetsk..."

It is reported that in 2008, I. Halunga was appointed as the head of the Donetsk city branch of the VO "Fatherland" party, but was removed from this position for embezzlement and misappropriation of millions of hryvnias allocated by the party for the presidential campaign in Donetsk in 2010. In the early 2000s, according to vremya.eu, I. Halunga was involved in the mass sale of young girls abroad for intimate services. Criminal case No. 67-648 was opened against Halunga's wife, Marina Nikolaevna, in 2000 by the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office under Article 124-1 part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Trafficking in Persons" (current Article 149 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In addition, it is claimed that I. Halunga evaded taxes, ran over people with his car, misappropriated funds allocated for a monument to female miners.

According to vremya.eu, these are documents from the database of the Department for Combating Organized Crime. These are the "faces" of today's church raiders.

The Face of a True Hero

Now, as an example, let's look at whom they raise their hand against. The rector of the St. Demetrius temple of the UOC in the village of Pylypovychi, which the aforementioned church raiders tried to seize, Archpriest Borys Kovalchuk, won the competition "People who amazed us with their fortitude and thirst for restoration", organized by the media project "Unbreakable.CITY". Father Borys performed a real feat when, during the Russian occupation in 2022, he evacuated about 1,500 residents from the village, shielding them from shelling with his own body. Five times he evacuated people and returned back with medicines and food for the remaining residents of Pylypovychi. And each time he went first in the convoy in case of shelling. He also managed to evacuate the bodies of 11 deceased soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In this video, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Herashchenko, tells about the feat of Fr. Borys and calls him a hero. Why doesn't A. Herashchenko come today and say the same to the face of the church raiders who are taking away from Fr. Borys and his parishioners their sanctuary?!

And this is just one example. How many such cases are there when a temple is taken away from a priest who is at the forefront, or is delivering volunteer aid to our soldiers, or buying a car for the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the money of the community!

Epilogue

Our brief examples vividly demonstrate that the "patriots" who have been touring around the villages of the Kyiv region today and pompously proclaiming that UOC priests are "FSB agents" have absolutely no moral grounds for saying so. These are people with extremely questionable reputations, and they, for the most part, should be the focus of law enforcement attention. And besides everything else, according to information from UOJ sources among the village residents, our heroes may receive a fixed reward for each temple "converted" by them.

But even if we assume that Vozny, Hryshachev, and Halunga are "ideological", what other goals could they pursue? The answer can only be one – definitely not religious or patriotic. Instead of uniting people, they deliberately sow enmity and hatred, pit one part of the population against the other, causing internal confrontation. Who benefits from this? Ukraine?

We all know the answer.

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