Armed radicals led by Drabinko seize church in Kruglyk

On April 14, 2022, a group of armed men under the leadership of the OCU "hierarch" Alexander Drabinko violently seized the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Kruglyk in the Kyiv region.

The territorial defence forces and local activists, most of whom are not parishioners of the church, were called to the pre-planned action, a source in the village of Kruglik reported us. There were also many armed men around the church. Drabinko himself arrived at the prayer service and tried to persuade the rector to go over to them, but was refused. After this, everyone gathered signed a petition, drawn up by Alexander Drabinko "on voluntary transition of the community" to the schismatics and broke down the doors of the church where there were the father rector and two clerics. Drabinko announced that the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary had transferred to the OCU.

Drabinko wrote on his Facebook page that the congregation of the Holy Assumption Church had done so "voluntarily and peacefully".

In fact, the vast majority of those who signed the petition to transfer to the OCU are neither parishioners of the temple nor local residents. Thus, Archpriest Stefan Gryga, commenting on what is happening on Facebook, wrote: "I have served in this temple many times! I don't recognize any of these people! As always those who have never been to the temple!"

The parishioners called the police but they found no wrongdoing, despite the broken down temple doors and threats to the UOC worshippers by the invaders. 

"We wanted to record what was happening on our phones, but they would not let us do this and knocked them out of our hands," said the source, "Meanwhile, supporters of the OCU freely took photos and made videos.

The schismatics changed the locks on the church doors for the UOC believers to have no access to the temple. 

This is not the first attempt to seize the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kruglyk. Supporters of the OCU appeared near the church back in March. On the Feast of the Annunciation, April 7, members of the local territorial forces (teroborona) tried to occupy the church, but the parishioners defended it. After that the teroborona visited the rector several times and tried to persuade him to join the OCU.

As a reminder, as a metropolitan of the UOC, Alexander Drabinko actively fought against the schismatic organizations and even wrote a brochure "Why the schismatic groups in Ukraine are called non-canonical". In 2003, the film "Anatomy of a Schism" was made based on Drabinko's script.

As reported, on 14 April, radicals in Boryspil tried to seize the Intercession Cathedral.

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