OCU seizes another UOC church in Cherkasy

Seizure of the UOC Church in honor of the “Chernobyl Savior” Icon in Cherkasy. Photo: First Cossack

On the morning of November 11, 2025, another seizure took place in Cherkasy. Representatives of the OCU forcibly took from UOC believers the Church of the Icon of the “Chernobyl Savior,” throwing the legitimate parishioners out the doors, First Cossack reports.

The events unfolded according to a familiar scenario. The security service informed the churchwarden that the alarm system had been triggered. When he arrived at the site, the church was already occupied by OCU supporters, and the premises were surrounded by police and SBU officers. According to sources, the operation was supervised by the deputy head of the Cherkasy branch of the SBU.

According to *Pervyi Kazatsky*, the process of re-registering the parish from the UOC to the OCU began in March 2025 without any assembly of parishioners – that is, without even asking the opinion of the faithful. Moreover, a ludicrous legal blunder occurred during re-registration: the parish’s legal address was recorded as the home of the UOC churchwarden himself. In other words, the “transferred” OCU community was legally “registered” at the private residence of a man who categorically opposed the transition.

When legal disputes began and the inconsistencies became obvious, the initiators made an unexpected move: the legal entity of the religious community was simply liquidated. This allowed them to bypass court proceedings and speed up the seizure.

An OCU lawyer present at the site showed police documents concerning re-registration but, according to UOC representatives, concealed a crucial fact – the liquidation of the community’s legal entity. The SBU forbade the security service from recording what was happening, and the alarm system codes were forcibly changed under the supervision of law enforcement officers.

The church is located near the St. Michael’s Cathedral, which had previously also been violently taken from the UOC.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Cherkasy Mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko had promised to seize the two remaining UOC churches in the city. “This is our fault and the community’s unfinished business. I think the community of Cherkasy must soon correct its mistakes. Moreover, the decision has long been made. One could say that representatives of the ‘FSB-MP’ are merely temporarily occupying these buildings,” Bondarenko stated.

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