Activists cut down cross where UOC community prayed in Cherkasy Region

Destroyed cross in Cherkasy region. Photo: t.me/dozor_kozak1

Another act of desecration against a holy site of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has taken place in the Cherkasy region. According to DOZOR, radicals cut down a worship cross before which a UOC community, evicted from its church, had been praying.

This occurred in the village of Blahodatne, where on March 12, 2025, supporters of the OCU took over the UOC’s Dormition Church, taking advantage of the elderly rector’s illness.

Eyewitnesses report that the church was forcibly seized by OCU activists with the support of police, who blocked access to the building and prevented UOC believers from attending services.

Deprived of their church, the Orthodox community was forced to find a new place to pray. That place became an open field in the neighboring village of Kedyna Hora, where they installed a worship cross and gathered for prayer.

According to local residents, the cross had been erected by the late Metropolitan Sofroniy (Dmytruk), former UOC bishop of Cherkasy.

However, tensions escalated again: frustrated that none of the UOC faithful joined their structure after the church takeover, OCU activists began trying to find out where the Orthodox community was holding services. According to eyewitnesses, this triggered a new wave of aggression.

On July 7, believers discovered that the cross where they held services had been cut down, with damaged icons lying nearby. Attempts to locate the cross in the village were unsuccessful – it had disappeared, and the prayer site was desecrated.

Earlier, it was reported that in the village of Pryvitove, Zhytomyr region, unknown vandals broke a cross and damaged a crucifix.

Read also