Failed seizure: UOC temple in Krasyliv and Bobukh

Serhiy Bobukh. Photo: UOJ

On 14 May 2024, a group of raiders once again attempted to seize the Nativity Church in the town of Krasyliv. The seizure was led by local businessman and official Serhiy Bobukh. Since this is neither the first nor the last attempt, we decided to shed light on both the attempt to take the temple from the UOC community and those involved in it.

How did the seizure take place?

The seizure of the Nativity Church was a well-planned action. According to our information, local officials, under the direction of the Krasyliv mayor, made up a "cunning" plan to take the temple without much noise.

The plan was simple: to divert the attention of the faithful, local OCU activists announced the planned "transfer" of the St. Nicholas’s Church in the village of Pylypy to Dumenko's structure. According to the "operation", it was assumed that UOC believers and priests would go to Pylypy to protect their sanctuary, while OCU representatives would seize the Nativity Church.

The distance from Krasyliv to Pylypy is about 17 kilometers or a 20-minute drive. The raiders supposed that by the time the believers realized what was happening, gathered and arrived, the first "prayer in Ukrainian" would have already been held in the temple. Everything was almost ready for this: authorities were notified, OCU "priests" were informed, and all necessary "documents" were prepared. However, the raiders miscalculated.

Upon arriving in Pylypy, the believers immediately realized they were being deceived, as only a few low-level officials and a couple of activists were present. Information then came from Krasyliv that someone was "walking" inside the temple in Morozivka (a town district). The believers reacted instantly: they rang the bell on the temple grounds, gathering district residents to defend the sanctuary (most of the residents in Morozivka are UOC believers).

Additionally, part of the parishioners from Pylypy, along with the priests, went there. The head priest called 112, stating that an outsider had entered the temple and might commit theft.

The police refused to take out the intruder, explaining that only "specially trained people," i.e., special forces, could do so. However, after talking with the parishioners, a video of which is at our disposal, police chief Roman Tymchyshyn agreed to enter the temple to check the situation.

Additionally, the owners of the temple, representatives of the UOC community, managed to enter the church and removed the raider – the local businessman and official, director of the Khmelnytskyi municipal enterprise "Electrotrans" Serhiy Bobukh – from the premises.

Later, around two dozen OCU supporters gathered near the temple, five of whom were "bonded" individuals, i.e., workers from the local brewery, several deputies from the Krasyliv City Council, and about 5-7 activists.

Among the authorities present were Yulia Babiichuk, Serhiy Didiuk, Volodymyr Prodous and Natalia Svystun – all deputies of the Krasyliv Town Council (in the photo below, they are marked with yellow markers).

Also spotted near the temple was one of the subjects of our investigation, the younger son of the former OCU "dean" from Krasyliv, Mykola Khomiak, Sviatoslav. Along with him, the new "dean" of Dumenko's structure was monitoring the situation (in the photo, they are marked with red markers).

In the end, the believers, shouting "Shame!", escorted Bobukh off the premises and managed to defend the temple.

What is Bobukh?

There is a simple truth: if the most active participant in a seizure is an official, that official is almost always either corrupt or involved in some scandals. They use the temple seizure to "prove" their "patriotism" and whitewash their "honest" name. The story in Krasyliv confirmed this truth.

The fact is that Serhiy Bobukh is involved in multiple scandals. Judge for yourself. Not so long ago, a video was published on one of Khmelnytskyi's Telegram channels, "Toloka Khmelnytskyi," showing the city ansport advertising the services of the bookmaker company "FavBet". It is clear that such advertising is very expensive. It is also clear that it is illegal.

According to the Law of Ukraine "On Media" (Article 22-1), outdoor and indoor advertising of gambling in transport and in the subway is forbidden.

It is also forbidden to target vulnerable groups (children, low-income individuals, and people with mental illnesses) with such advertising. Public transport is used by all city residents, including these categories.

Does this mean that Mr. Bobukh violates the Law of Ukraine? Yes. But he cannot do this without coordination with his higher-ups, right? Bobukh's direct superior is Mykola Vavryshchuk, the deputy mayor of Khmelnytskyi responsible for public transport, under mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn.

It is unlikely that the city mayor is unaware of what is happening in his buses. He is certainly is. He also knows that advertising in public transport is illegal. But what is the law to a man who recently claimed that all "transfers" to the OCU in the city of Khmelnytskyi were allegedly legal, while the UOC clergy stating otherwise were lying?

"They write letters from time to time about some illegal decisions, about government interference... But we do not interfere because we are lawmen and uphold the law," Symchyshyn assured in June 2023. We saw him and his subordinates uphold the law in the case of the "FavBet" advertisement. But besides violating the Law of Ukraine "On Media", there is something else interesting in this situation.

The fact is that the company "FavBet", registered in Kyiv, is essentially owned by Ukrainian citizen Andriy Matiukha. Casino.ua, BK "Favorit", and "Favorit Sport" also belong to him.

After 24 February, waiting a few weeks and observing the developments, "FavBet" issued a statement that it had never operated in the Russian market and was leaving Belarus. Now, if you reside in these countries, neither Russia nor Belarus appears in the country selection window. But if you have a VPN, the problem is easily solved. And there's more. The same Khmelnytskyi media published a scan of a Russian passport issued on 24 May 2022, which lists the owner as... Andriy Matiukha. According to checks in open sources, such a passport indeed exists and was issued in the Moscow region.

It turns out that while Khmelnytskyi officials accuse the parishioners of the Nativity Church in Krasyliv of "working for Russia" (even though none of them has ever been to Russia), they are at the same time advertising the services of a bookmaker company whose owner fled to Russia and obtained citizenship there. Under which article of the law does this fall? Symchyshyn, Vavryshchuk, and Bobukh should know this very well. And believe me, they do. But they still do "business" because money doesn’t smell, and there is no one to hold them accountable for the illegal advertising of a company owned by a person with a Russian passport.

Just as there is no one to hold them accountable for land scams.

Here is a screenshot with the cadastral numbers of land plots allocated to Serhiy Bobukh, Oleksandr Bobukh (Serhiy’s father), and Olha Bobukh (Serhiy’s wife). Each of them received two hectares of land. And it would seem fine since Ukrainian citizens have the right to this by law. But there is one "but".

The fact is that all these land plots were allocated for... AFU soldiers. The names you see above and below the Bobukh family are the names of people who participated in the ATO and are now defending Ukraine from Russian aggression. Naturally, none of the Bobukhs has been seen on the front lines defending the Motherland.

Hence the question: what merits does a local official have to receive 6 hectares of land intended for participants in combat operations defending Ukraine? The second question is even more interesting: who helped him obtain this land?

We will tell you about this in our next article. For now, let's summarize the preliminary results.

What did the situation in Krasyliv teach us?

According to eyewitnesses, when Bobukh was taken out of the temple, a local official approached him and asked: "Couldn't you do it quietly?" If this is true, we can draw two conclusions:

1. The temple seizure was clearly not planned by Bobukh, but by those who could direct several city council deputies to Pylypy, and several people to the Nativity Church in Krasyliv.

2. Those behind the attempted seizure wanted very much to do everything "quietly", with no fuss. Why? Because there are likely people who would be very unhappy with much fuss around the UOC temple. And these people are clearly not from Krasyliv.

3. We are often surprised when we hear that officials participate in the seizure of UOC temples. We are surprised because we wonder: how can people representing the authorities not understand that they are breaking the law when they engage in raiding UOC temples?

But the situation with Bobukh (and other officials) shows that violating the Law is not a taboo for Ukrainian politicians attacking the Church. They have violated the Law repeatedly, and it does not represent a force capable of stopping the lawlessness.

For them, breaking the Law has become a habit, and seizing a temple is just another manifestation of this habit. A person who is not involved in corruption schemes, who is honest as a politician and responsible as an official, who tries to follow the Law, would not break it. Moreover, they would not demonstrate their "patriotism" by humiliating and insulting their fellow citizens. Simply because they have a conscience.

Unlike those who storm temples.

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