Eyewitnesses: OCU paid militants UAH 1,000 each for seizing Chernivtsi cathedral

OCU militants receiving instructions from a coordinator on UOC cathedral grounds. Photo: UOJ

Ivan Khmelevskyi, a parishioner of the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Chernivtsi, told Tetiana Tsaruk in an interview that the OCU militants who seized the church for several hours on June 17, 2025, were each paid 1,000 hryvnias for the job.

According to him, when parishioners managed to enter the church grounds, they detained one of the militants, who admitted that he and his colleagues were “each paid 1,000 hryvnias for all this.”

Khmelevskyi said the coordinators gave the militants the task of seizing the cathedral and holding it until OCU representatives arrived.

The interview also showed footage of parishioners speaking with Roman Hryshchuk Jr., the son of a notorious Bukovyna raider. Hryshchuk admitted having received payment in dollars.

“Actually, the guys paid me 3,000 bucks. You could earn this way too,” Hryshchuk Jr. said, asking those present “not to interfere with him making money.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that during the seizure of the cathedral in Chernivtsi, OCU militants turned the altar into a toilet.

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