With Grinder and Crowbar, OCU Seizes UOC Church in Ukrainian Village

Breaking into the UOC church in Nahoriany. Photo: UOJ

NAHORYANY — On September 28, 2025, in the village of Nahoryany, Chernivtsi region, a group of men forced open the doors of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Nativity of the Mother of God using an angle grinder, a crowbar, and other tools, the Facebook group "Faithful of the Chernivtsi–Bukovyna Eparchy of the UOC" reported.

In a video from the scene, a representative of the UOC admonished the intruders, telling them they were acting illegally since they were not parishioners of the church.

“If any one of you recites the 50th or 90th Psalm, I will immediately hand you the keys to the church,” he told the raiders in response to their demand to open the church. But none of the activists was able to do so.

According to the UOC community representative, none of those present attended services in the church on a regular basis. He also stressed that the village assembly had no legitimacy to decide the fate of the church:

“The village community decides the fate of the village, the fate of the mayor, the fate of the president, and so on. When was the last time you confessed, received Communion?”

The representative of the UOC community warned the men directly involved in breaking into the church that the time would come when they would bear criminal responsibility for their actions.

The seizure was overseen by the notorious Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) raider from the village of Hlyboka, Roman Hryshchuk. Entering the captured sanctuary, Hryshchuk, together with about a dozen associates, thanked “all those who joined with their word, their truth, their stance in what the villagers accomplished here.”

Previously, UOJ reported that the “superior” of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) St. John Chrysostom Monastery in Lviv, “archimandrite” Kyprian Lozynsky, conducted a “service” wearing the miter of St. John of Kronstadt.

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