OCU Covers Saints' Icons With Ukrainian Flags in Seized Odessa Church

ODESSA, UKRAINE — Representatives of the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) covered icons depicting Orthodox saints with Ukrainian national flags during their first service in a church recently seized from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Odessa, according to photographs published by the Odesa Eparchy of the OCU on June 28.

The images, released following the celebration of the Divine Liturgy at the former St. Alexander Nevsky Church at the Odessa Military Hospital, showed multiple icons obscured by blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags. The service, conducted on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, marked the first liturgical celebration by the OCU in the church since its seizure from the UOC.

The liturgy was led by Archpriest Theodore Orobets, secretary of the Odessa Eparchy of the OCU, together with military chaplain Fr. Viktor Bondar, the church's newly appointed rector, and other military chaplains. Following the service, Archpriest Orobets described the occasion as a landmark event in the life of the parish.

The covering of the icons comes after previous statements by Archpriest Orobets criticizing the church's iconographic program, including depictions of the Royal Martyrs, St. Andrew Bogolyubsky, and St. Dmitry Donskoy. As reported by UOJ-Ukraine, the Odessa Eparchy has previously announced plans to remove the existing icons entirely and replace them to reflect what it has called "the demands of contemporary Ukrainian reality," describing the current iconography as a marker of Russian religious culture.

The church, originally dedicated to Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, has also been renamed in honor of St. Agapitus of the Kyiv Caves.

Previously, the UOJ reported that an attempted takeover of a UOC church was underway in Odessa.