Anatomy of provocation: How an OCU raider seizes churches in Bukovyna

Hryshchuk in Zastavna. Photo: screenshot of Hryshchuk's Facebook page

A video from Zastavna in Ukraine's Bukovyna region is circulating widely on social media. Roman Hryshchuk, a well-known OCU church raider, showed up with a camera on private property where a Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) community is building a new church after its previous one was seized. He claimed he had come to "tell the truth and open people's eyes."

But was that really his purpose?

The footage shows parishioners resting and having dinner after a day's work at the construction site. They show no hostility toward Hryshchuk, despite his entering their property without permission. On the contrary, they invite him to join them for dinner.

But he did not come for a friendly conversation. He had another objective. Let's examine what it was.

From the outset, he accuses the parishioners of building the "Russian world" and Russia itself in Ukraine:

"You are helping build Russia here. That means you, too, have the blood of our soldiers on your hands – soldiers who are dying so that this land will be Ukraine, not Russia."

He then repeatedly demands that they give the "correct" response to the patriotic greeting "Glory to Ukraine!" But his efforts fail: the parishioners persist in answering, "Glory to our God!"

Next, he bombards them with questions: "Did Russia attack us or not? Who are we fighting? Who attacked us? Is Putin a criminal or not? Is Russia to blame for this war or not?"

Imagine the situation. You are eating and resting after a hard day's work when someone barges in uninvited and relentlessly repeats the same absurd questions, whose answers are obvious to everyone.

How would you react? Naturally, with irritation and anger.

One man responds to Hryshchuk in precisely those terms: "Are you going to let us eat or not? What does Russia have to do with our dinner?! What does the war have to do with our dinner?"

At that point, Hryshchuk presses him further: "Who is your enemy – me or Putin?"

The man, speaking in anger, snaps back: "You! You're Putin!"

And that is exactly what the OCU cleric needed to hear.

He then turns to the camera and declares:

"You heard them. All of them, unanimously, refuse to acknowledge that Russia attacked us. They refuse to acknowledge that Putin is our enemy. But they do acknowledge that Ukrainian priests are their enemies. People, it's time you drew your own conclusions."

What conclusions is Hryshchuk encouraging his viewers to draw?

"Mr. Roman, let them build this church, too. We, the residents of Zastavna, will take it away from them," one of his Facebook followers writes beneath the post.

Hryshchuk responds by liking the comment.

In other words, Hryshchuk's actions follow a calculated strategy of provocation.

His goal is to push people to the breaking point and provoke statements he can then present as proof of their "pro-Russian" sympathies. He subsequently fuels a wave of online hostility and organizes a church seizure.

This simple tactic has worked for Hryshchuk more than once in Bukovyna. Now he has tried it on a church that has not even been completed.

There is another revealing detail.

Hryshchuk directs his accusation about having "the blood of our soldiers" on their hands at a woman whose son is currently serving on the front lines.

Sitting beside her is a parishioner who spent several years fighting on the front lines and suffered a concussion.

So much for these supposed "Muscovites."

Meanwhile, their accuser, the self-styled "chaplain" Hryshchuk, is not in the trenches alongside Ukrainian soldiers. He is safely back in Bukovyna.

The cynicism is staggering.

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