Eyewitnesses Claim OCU Paid Militants to Seize Cathedral in Chernivtsi

OCU militants receiving instructions from a coordinator on UOC cathedral grounds. [CREDIT: UOJ/SPZh]

CHERNIVTSI — Ivan Khmelevsky, a parishioner of the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Chernivtsi, revealed in an interview with Tatyana Tsaruk that the militants of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) who stormed the cathedral on June 17, 2025, were each paid 1,000 hryvnias for their participation.

According to Khmelevsky, when parishioners managed to regain access to the cathedral grounds, they detained one of the militants, who openly admitted that he and his associates were each paid "1,000 hryvnias for all of this."

Khmelevsky said the militants had been instructed by their coordinators to seize the cathedral and hold it until representatives of the PCU could arrive.

The interview also featured footage of a conversation between parishioners and Roman Gryshchuk Jr., the son of a notorious raider in the Bukovina region. Gryshchuk Jr. confessed that he had been paid in U.S. dollars for his role.

"Honestly, the guys paid me 3,000 bucks. You could earn like this too," Gryshchuk Jr. said, asking those present not to interfere with his "business."

Previously, the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported that during the seizure of the cathedral in Chernivtsi, OCU militants desecrated the altar by using it as a toilet.

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