Attempted seizure of Ascension Church of UOC recorded in Kyiv

A scandal is erupting in Kyiv over the Ascension Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Demiivka. According to human rights activists, the state registry recorded an illegal change of the head of the religious community, which is viewed by church representatives as preparation for a further seizure of the church by force.

According to the lawyer of the UOC, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, on his Telegram channel, on March 31, 2026, illegal changes in the registration data were detected. Instead of the legitimate rector, Archpriest Pavel Kirillov, the new head of the community is Taras Ivanovich Pikus. According to the available information, this citizen is a student of the Kyiv Orthodox Theological Academy of the OCU and does not have a holy rank.

The UOC lawyers emphasize that the community’s charter and its official denominational affiliation have remained unchanged, and there are no legal grounds for changing the leadership. During the legal analysis, it turned out that the contact phone number indicated in the Pikus documents is directly related to the OCU and is registered to the «archpriest» of this structure, Igor Polizhak. «An appeal to law enforcement agencies is currently being prepared on the fact of using deliberately forged documents,» the article notes.

Such fraud is punishable under Article 205-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The lawyers are starting the procedure of obtaining the materials of the registration case to appeal the actions of the state registrar. It is worth noting that the Church of the Ascension in Demiivka is one of the leading spiritual centers of the capital, which did not stop its activities even during the harshest Soviet persecution of the faith.

Earlier, we reported that in the city of Korsun-Shevchenkivsky, Cherkasy region, the Church of the Savior of the Unmanufactured, which previously belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and is now under the control of supporters of the OCU, was turned into a clothing warehouse. Sacks and boxes of clothes are now being stored in the building, which has not been used for worship for more than 20 months after it was seized.