Uniate parish in Omsk shut down over icon featuring Shukhevych and Bandera

Icon “Protection of the Queen of Ukraine”. Photo: Website of the Embassy of Ukraine in Brazil

On March 11, 2025, the Cassation Court in Omsk upheld the decision of the Omsk Regional Court to liquidate the local religious organization “Greek Catholic Parish of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Catholic Church in the city of Omsk.” The Greek Catholic (Uniate) community was shut down over an icon depicting Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, according to the unified press service of the courts of Omsk Oblast.

In court, a representative of the Roman Catholic Transfiguration Diocese in Novosibirsk stated that the decision to close the parish insults all Catholics, “casting a shadow of extremism-related accusations upon them.” The Cassation Court, however, deemed these arguments an emotional appeal to the court without legal grounds.

Previously, the Omsk Regional Court had determined that in 2023–2024, printed materials and icons featuring Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych – leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – had been publicly displayed on the premises of the parish.

The Cassation Court noted that while there are no legal restrictions or prohibitions on the practice and dissemination of the Catholic faith in Russia, the use of materials aimed at rehabilitating Nazism is forbidden.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that following protests from Poland, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada deleted a Twitter post about Bandera.

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