Ex-OCU cleric: Why do churches taken from UOC stand empty?

The Mykhailivsky Cathedral in Cherkasy a year after the seizure. Photo: "Pervyi Kazatskyi"

Yaroslav Yasenets, who served in the Kyiv Eparchy of the OCU, published a detailed statement in which he described the systemic problems of this structure in detail.

One of the main issues mentioned by the former cleric of the OCU is the situation with the seized churches. According to him, many churches taken from the UOC are almost empty.

"Often the UOC community remains with their priest, the church is taken from them, and they perform liturgy and prayer somewhere else. And the church transferred to the OCU stands empty," notes Yasenets. "You don't have to go far. Anyone can open the Internet, Google, YouTube and search for this evidence, because there are many photos and videos."

As an example, he cites St. Michael's Cathedral in Cherkasy, seized with the use of force and special means in October 2024.

"The activists who participated in the seizure later did not show a desire to systematically pray and partake in this temple, resulting in it being almost completely empty despite its large size. Anyone can open the Internet and look at the photos of the services," he noted.

At the same time, he emphasizes that after the seizures, the number of UOC parishioners does not decrease. "One should ask oneself: what are we doing wrong compared to the hated Muscovites that people go to them and are often ready to even pray in adapted premises, to protect their churches with all their might, while our churches and altars are empty? Why do the churches transferred to the OCU by hook or by crook stand empty? Could it be that all the parishioners and servants of the UOC work for Moscow and are fed from Putin's generous hand?" he wonders.

He gives the example of Chernivtsi, where in June 2025 Roman Hryshchuk and Ivan Chokaliuk attempted to organize the cathedral seizure, but the UOC Metropolitan Meletiy brought out several thousand parishioners to defend it.

"Are we to think that all these several thousand parishioners were paid from FSB funds? Perhaps it's time to stop blaming mythical external enemies for everything and start asking ourselves critical questions," states Yasenets.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that a well-known cleric of the OCU left the structure due to disagreement with Dumenko's course.

Read also