Zakarpattia court fines pensioner for сriticizing OCU on social media
An Uzhhorod court fined a pensioner and confiscated his cellphone over Facebook comments criticizing the OCU and Dumenko.
The Uzhhorod City District Court in Ukraine's Zakarpattia region found Vasyl Holubka, a native of the village of Uhlia in Tiachiv district, guilty of inciting religious hatred over social media comments criticizing the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and defending the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), Zaxid.net reports.
According to the October 30, 2026, ruling by Judge Oleksii Fazykosh, the pensioner was fined 3,400 hryvnias. The court also ordered the confiscation of his Xiaomi cellphone, which he had used to post the comments online, and required him to pay 4,400 hryvnias in forensic examination costs.
The court found that between 2023 and 2025, Holubka had posted comments in Facebook groups criticizing the OCU and its leader, Epifaniy Dumenko. He also described the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as the Church that truly belonged to Ukrainians and rejected claims of its ties to Russia.
During the hearing, Holubka pleaded guilty, explaining that he had acted out of emotion. His attorney drew the court's attention to his client's advanced age. The court also considered his donation of 20,000 hryvnias to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and his lack of prior convictions as mitigating circumstances.
As the UOJ previously reported, a court in the Rivne region fined a man for criticizing a parish's purported "transfer" to the OCU.
