Police open criminal proceedings due to the attack on UOC bishop
Bishop Nikita of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia. Photo: bbc.com
Law enforcers opened criminal proceedings in connection with the attack in Chernivtsi on Bishop Nikita (Storozhuk) of Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia UOC and his subdeacons. Karolina Marysheva, press secretary of the Chernivtsi region police, informed bbc.com.
She said that the police had launched an investigation into the offense under part 1 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism). According to the press secretary, the investigators are still investigating the circumstances of the conflict, but “there is no talk about inciting religious hatred so far."
According to law enforcement officers, the attacker is a 28 year-old resident of Chernivtsi. The police have no information that the offender was allegedly a military man, as some media write.
As the UOJ reported, the incident took place on April 10, 2023 at 10 p.m. near the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC in Sahaydachny Street. The attacker struck the bishop and one of the subdeacons.
The attacker was not afraid that the police would be called – he said that he "knows everyone in the SBU", and "nothing will happen to him." After the arrival of the patrol, he continued to threaten violence and even started a brawl again.
Read also
GOARCH Sets 2026 Clergy-Laity Congress for Cleveland
GOARCH will convene its 2026 Clergy-Laity Congress in Cleveland, highlighting parish renewal under the theme “Rise and Build,” alongside major Philoptochos and young-adult gatherings.
Monastic Vocations Gathering Draws Young Men to St. Peter's Monastery
Visit from Hilandar abbot highlights growing interest in Orthodox monastic life in America.
HCHC Wins $7.5 Million Lilly Endowment Grant to Revamp Priestly Formation
Grant will fund redesigned Master of Divinity program with extensive parish-based training.
Islamists Desecrate Orthodox and Presbyterian Churches in Sudan
Two Port Sudan churches were defaced with Islamic graffiti, highlighting rising anti-Christian hostility amid the Sudanese civil war.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Falls Asleep in the Lord
The Tokyo-born performer will be remembered for decades of film and TV work. In 2015, he was baptized into the Orthodox faith, taking the name Panteleimon.
Midwest Churches to Host Lectures Marking 100 Years Since St. Tikhon’s Repose
Holy Trinity Seminary professor Protodeacon Andrei Psarev will tour the Midwest to deliver a lecture series honoring St. Tikhon of Moscow as "The First Patriarch of the New World."