Bukovyna faithful ask for prayers for severely wounded son of UOC priest

The son of a UOC priest, serviceman Yakiv Horiuk, sustained multiple shrapnel wounds on the Zaporizhzhia front. Photo: UOC

On February 4, 2026, while carrying out a combat mission on the Zaporizhzhia axis, Yakiv Horiuk, a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the son of a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Bukovyna, was seriously wounded in an artillery strike. His family and representatives of the church community have appealed for prayerful support for the wounded serviceman.

Yakiv Horiuk, born in 2001, is in critical condition. Doctors diagnosed him with blast injuries; multiple shrapnel wounds to the face and lower jaw with a comminuted fracture; a penetrating chest wound with damage to the heart; thoracoabdominal wounds affecting internal organs; and multiple injuries to his limbs. His loved ones and the faithful are asking for intensified prayers that he may be granted healing and strength.

The serviceman grew up in a large priest’s family with twelve children; he is the sixth child. In March 2022, at the age of 21, Yakiv volunteered to defend Ukraine. He left his studies at the Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design in order to stand in defense of Ukrainian land and his compatriots.

It is reported that during the period of pressure on the UOC, Yakiv, while at the front, openly expressed support for the Church. Today, the church community and all who care are asking for prayers for the defender of the homeland.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that a demographer explained that the combination of migration and natural mortality leads to the loss of about 1.15 million citizens per year.

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