People in balaclavas kick UOC priest out of church in Tarasivka

An attempted seizure of a temple in Tarasivka. Photo: a video screenshot of the TG channel “Victoria Kokhanovska. Women's Power of Ukraine".

On December 7, 2022, in the village of Tarasivka in the Boryspil district, Kyiv region (the Boyarka Deanery), there was another attempt to seize the Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the rector of the church, Archpriest Volodymyr Kozachynskyy, told the UOJ.

According to the rector, in the morning, activists of the OCU, men in uniform with weapons (presumably representatives of the military), together with the village authorities, came to the temple and broke in. When Archpriest Volodymyr entered the church, he was violently pushed into the narthex and then thrown out of the church. The aggressive group then left the premises and put their own locks on the temple. The UOC faithful cut off these locks and entered the church in order to prevent the church raiding.

The UOC representatives explained their actions by the decision of the "religious community" which had allegedly voted for a transfer from the UOC to the OCU.

As reported, in August, at a meeting organised by the authorities, Tarasivka residents decided to hand over the Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos to the OCU. At the time, more than 300 believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church prayed in front of the church, which was closed down by the authorities.

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