National Memory Institute and SBU open exhibition on UGCC liquidation
Participants in the exhibition opening. Photo: UGCC website
On March 6, 2026, an open-air documentary exhibition titled Empire Against the Church was ceremonially opened on Kontraktova Square in Kyiv. The display is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the 1946 Lviv Council, at which the decision was made to liquidate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). The project was organized by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University, with the participation of the Sectoral State Archive of the SBU. This was reported by the UGCC website.
Among those present at the opening were UGCC head Sviatoslav Shevchuk, DESS chief Viktor Yelensky, UINM head Oleksandr Alferov, and SBU Archive Director Andriy Kohut. The exhibition is intended to condemn the repressions against the UGCC, yet the speeches delivered by the high-ranking guests at the opening sounded like a rather peculiar acknowledgment of their own methods of dealing with “undesirable” confessions today.
UGCC Head Sviatoslav Shevchuk, surrounded by DESS and SBU officials, shared what he described as an important theological observation: Stalin’s repressive machine failed to destroy the UGCC, “because our people and our Church carried the faith in their hearts.” According to him, similar processes against the UGCC can now be seen in the occupied territories. He made no mention of whether he sees any parallels in the actions of the Ukrainian authorities against the UOC.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that DESS had drawn parallels between the liquidation of the UGCC and the present day.
Read also
TRC abducts monk of Myltsi Monastery of UOC
The monastery resident Father Vlasiy was mobilized and sent to a training center after being detained while working near the monastery walls.
Expertise finds no incitement by Epifaniy against Metropolitan Theodosiy
Forensic linguist Vadym Zhuravel called the attacks by the head of the OCU evaluative judgments and refused to recognize them as slander against the UOC hierarch.
A third of Anglican bishops ignore enthronement of female Archbishop
16 out of 42 primates of Anglican provinces did not participate in the ceremony in Canterbury.
TRC and SBU abduct two monks from UOC monastery in Izium
Law enforcement officers took away and are holding at the TRC Archimandrite Leontiy and Hieromonk Arseniy from the Peschansk Monastery.
Heads of Churches in Jerusalem call for peace in Paschal Message
The Patriarch of Jerusalem and other religious leaders of the Holy Land have sent words of encouragement to the faithful and called for an end to bloodshed before Pascha.
In Thessaloniki, clerics convicted for forging Phanar seals and fraud
Two clerics were convicted of fraud amounting to 1.5 million euros and forging documents with Phanar seals to "promote" a candidate for a diocese.