Police seizing UOC’s St. Michael Monastery in Pereyaslav
Seizure of St. Michael Monastery in Pereyaslav. Photo: screenshot from a video by the Pershyi Kozatskyi Telegram channel
On May 11, 2026, police officers and representatives of the National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve “Pereyaslav” began seizing the UOC’s St. Michael Monastery, the Pershyi Kozatskyi Telegram channel reported. Special forces and enforcement officers surrounded the shrine, blocking the entrances and exits.
Footage published from the scene shows law enforcement officers using physical force against believers who tried to defend the monastery. Police literally dragged Orthodox Christians away from the monastery gates.
Police officers also pulled away the monastery’s abbot, Archimandrite Antoniy, after which they broke the locks.
Sources report that the monastery has come under the control of law enforcement and museum staff. Representatives of the museum have now entered the monastery premises and are taking inventory of the monastery property.
Representatives of the reserve began a large-scale “inventory” of the property, while law enforcement officers removed parishioners who had prayed within these walls for decades, calling them “unauthorized persons.”
Museum employees, backed by special forces, reportedly broke even into the monks’ private cells, to which state structures have no legal rights.
Back in June 2023, raiders attempted a forceful seizure, but at that time the community, led by Archimandrite Antoniy (Pukhkan), managed to defend the shrine by forming a “human shield” in the path of the attackers.
In November 2025, the Pereyaslav authorities moved to legal pressure: city council deputies adopted a decision to “remove obstacles” to the work of the reserve, effectively instructing the police to evict the monks.
The city’s mayor, Viacheslav Saulko, openly demanded the immediate enforcement of the court decision on eviction, accusing law enforcement of “insufficient activity.”
In March 2026, the UOJ reported that a forceful assault was being prepared with the involvement of the leadership of the Boryspil District Administration and officers of the SBU.
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