Cleric leaves OCU structure over “disagreement with Epifaniy’s methods”

Oleksandr Halas receiving treatment after his injury. Photo: Oleksandr’s Facebook page

On April 16, 2026, OCU “priest” Oleksandr Halas submitted a statement addressed to OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko announcing his withdrawal from the organization’s “hierarchy.” The clergyman said his decision was driven by categorical disagreement with Dumenko’s course, the methods used to govern the structure, and what he described as the leadership’s “openly biased, unjust, and discourteous attitude.”

The conflict began after Halas, who joined the OCU in 2023, tried to oppose financial abuses within the organization. While serving in the town of Ichnia, he said he discovered that a local OCU “cleric” was appropriating donations collected by parishioners for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Later, after being transferred to the village of Danyna in Chernihiv region, the priest said he encountered an attempted theft of antiques: local OCU activists allegedly proposed that he “evaluate” and remove historic icons from an old church, replacing them with copies.

After he refused to take part in the schemes, pressure was allegedly brought against him, forcing him to move to Zhytomyr region. But at a parish in the village of Lypky, he said he again uncovered a lack of accounting for funds that the Obolon plant had allocated for the construction of a new church. His attempt to bring order to the bookkeeping, he said, led to his immediate removal from staff, after which, according to him, severe reprisals followed.

According to Halas, the OCU leadership effectively “sent him to his death.” Immediately after his dismissal, police officers and representatives of the territorial recruitment center allegedly arrived at his home and, in a rough manner, threatening him with prison and violence, forced him to undergo a military medical commission and sent him to the 95th Assault Brigade.

During his service, the priest sustained a serious chest injury and is currently in the hospital. In his statement, he stressed that he no longer considers any bans or sanctions imposed by Dumenko to be valid.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Easter cakes distributed in an OCU church in Transcarpathia carried advertising for a member of parliament.

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