When you are forbidden to build a church, is that "freedom of faith"?
The authorities stopped the construction of the UOC church in Nychehivka. Photo: Suspilne
The village of Nychehivka in Volhynia is yet another example of the remarkable "freedom of faith" that our officials and members of the AUCCRO so love to speak about in the West.
In 2019, supporters of the OCU seized the church from the St. Nicholas community, beating parishioners in the process. After that, the faithful began holding services in an old unheated house. But in 2025, under very suspicious circumstances, a fire broke out there. Everything burned down. The community then began constructing a new small church on a private plot of land. It would seem this is their lawful right, guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine.
However, the local OCU "priest" Lushchynskyi appealed to the authorities "to ban the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in our village altogether and to stop their construction." He declared that "our entire district has joined the OCU" and complained that Nychehivka had become a center where UOC faithful from surrounding villages come to pray. The regional council responded to Lushchynskyi's denunciation and demanded that the village head halt the construction. The head complied: with the assistance of police, the construction was stopped.
The result: UOC faithful from Nychehivka and neighboring villages have nowhere to pray. A classic example of freedom of religion. And anyone who is dissatisfied is, of course, an agent of the Kremlin.
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