OCU "hierarch" announces taking over St. John's Church of UOC in Kyiv

Invaders of the Church of St. John the Warrior in Bykivnia, Kyiv. Photo: Serhiy Horobtsov's FB page

On February 14, 2026, Donetsk "metropolitan" of the OCU Serhiy Horobtsov announced the takeover of the UOC Church of St. John the Warrior in Kyiv, located in the Bykivnia district? Kyiv. According to him, Serhiy Dumenko proposed that he "head the complex for the full placement of the Synodal Department for Social Ministry of the OCU."

Horobtsov assured that the crowd of people in balaclavas who cut through the church doors with an angle grinder and took control of it were "believers" who "for the first time fully gathered in their church for communal prayer in the Ukrainian language."

The Bykivnia district is a burial site for the victims of the totalitarian Soviet regime, including executed priests. According to Horobtsov, “for the community, it was a painful dissonance to realize that on this land sanctified by suffering, prayers could be offered not for their own people and their heroes.”

At the same time, according to the UOJ source, the people who broke down the church doors and conducted a "service" there have no relation to any religious community. This is also confirmed by photographs of the participants in the seizure. Kyiv City Council deputy from European Solidarity Oleksandr Suprun posted on his Facebook page photos of the "worshippers" in the seized church, where it can be seen that inside there is a group of young people, some of whom are wearing balaclavas and hoods.

According to a report from Pershyi Kozatskyi (First Cossack), the seizure participants spent the entire day looting the captured church and are preparing to seize the house where the rector of the UOC community, Archimandrite Pavel (Sergeev), resides.

It should be recalled that on November 4, 2025, the Kyiv City Military Administration issued decree №1107 on the re-registration of the UOC community of the Martyr John the Warrior to the OCU. The decree was signed by the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration (KCMA), Timur Tkachenko.

The text states that the re-registration was carried out based on a meeting of the UOC community that allegedly took place on September 22, 2025. However, as sources in the community reported to the UOJ, no meeting regarding the transition to the OCU took place either on September 22 or on any other day. Both the rector and the parishioners of the church learned about the "transition" from the Internet.

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