The 'rector' of the seized Kremenchuk cathedral barred the UOC community from prayer
In Kremenchuk, the community of the seized cathedral held a meeting and voted to change the parish council.
On June 14, 2026, in Kremenchuk, OCU cleric Theodosius Ovcharuk, who calls himself the 'rector' of the seized Holy Trinity Cathedral, blocked parishioners of the UOC and denied them the right to pray within the walls of their native shrine.
According to SPJ sources, people came to the church after a religious procession, responding to a public invitation from Ovcharuk himself, which he had announced the day before in an interview. In practice, however, the OCU's 'openness' proved to be a lie: the cathedral doors remained locked before the faithful, who had begun building this church back in 1992.
"We built this church — I personally unloaded rebar 30 years ago, my father loaded every truck. Why can't we go inside?" the parishioners said indignantly, emphasizing that attempts were being made to turn them into 'second-class Ukrainians.'
In response to the blocked prayer, the community held a meeting right at the cathedral walls. It was attended by 229 actual members of the religious community, who unanimously expressed a vote of no confidence in Theodosius Ovcharuk and the entire current composition of the parish council. Konstantin Semenyuk was elected as the new chairman of the council.
Despite the presence of police and the peaceful nature of the meeting, 'rector' Ovcharuk called the community's actions 'unlawful' and 'criminal.' The faithful called on law enforcement officers to record the violation of their rights and the obstruction of lawful activity. At the conclusion of the gathering, the community held a prayer service for the people and the soldiers, declaring their intention to seek the return of their church through legal means.
As a reminder, the forcible seizure of the Trinity Cathedral in Kremenchuk took place on June 4, 2026. At that time, OCU radicals, backed by police and using physical force, stormed the shrine. During the assault, supporters of Epiphanius Dumenko's structure beat Archimandrite Joseph. Medical assistance was also required for one of the parishioners who was injured by the aggressive actions of the raiders.
Despite the raiders' claims of a 'lawful transfer' based on court rulings, the cathedral's actual community stated that the re-registration was carried out against their will and without regard for the views of the people who had prayed in this church for decades and built it with their own hands.
