UOC community in Dubivtsi appeals to U.S. Government over threat of seizure

Appeal from the Assumption community in Dubivtsi regarding the threat of seizure. Photo: parish's Facebook page

The Assumption Community of the village of Dubivtsi in Bukovyna has appealed to the U.S. government, Vice President J.D. Vance, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, and the OSCE due to the threat of their church being seized by the OCU.

The parishioners reported that on January 26, 2025, several OCU activists organized a meeting in the village to initiate the transfer of the church. When parishioners signed in only as participants in the meeting, the organizers collected the documents and vanished without conducting any vote.

The believers fear that their signatures may be misrepresented as support for the transition to the OCU.

The forms included columns for voting "for" or "against" the transition from the UOC to the OCU. People signed their names, but the columns remained empty. When parishioners realized they had been deceived, they demanded the right to mark their vote. However, OCU supporters, hiding the lists, fled from the venue.

UOC parishioners turned to law enforcement to retrieve the documents, but their appeals and demands were ignored.

"We know that fake documents are being prepared for our 'voluntary transition'. We fear there may be a forceful seizure ahead, which could imperil our believers.

We are Ukrainians. We oppose religious strife being incited by OCU adherents. We love God, our Church, our native Ukraine, our people, and our land," the Assumption community stated.

As of today, such meetings and violent raids of UOC churches are taking place throughout Bukovyna and across Ukraine in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution – during martial law.

It will be recalled that in Dubivtsi, the OCU had previously falsified the results of a parish transition vote.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that in Pidzakharychi, UOC believers appealed to Vance ahead of an OCU assault on their church.

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Metropolitan Meletiy, who was injured during the seizure attempt, came out to the faithful and thanked them for their steadfastness and loyalty.