In the Zhytomyr region, supporters of the OCU are preparing to seize a church belonging to the UOC

A conflict has arisen in the Zhytomyr region over the Trinity Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Stara Chortoria. A group of local activists affiliated with the OCU is allegedly planning to take action to seize or take over the church following an incident related to the organization of a funeral service for a soldier who died on the front lines. This was reported by the Telegram channel “DOZOR” on “First Cossack.”

According to the source, the activists went to the leadership of the Zhytomyr-Ovruch branch of the OCU to obtain the relevant “decree” from the head of the local OCU chapter, Paisiy Kukharchuk. This was preceded by a provocation involving an attempt to hold the funeral service for the fallen soldier on the premises of the Trinity Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), but with the participation of OCU clergy.

According to a report by “Suspilne. Zhytomyr,” Kateryna Nakonechna, a resident of the village, was preparing a funeral service for her son-in-law, who was killed on the front lines, with the participation of OCU clergy. According to the source, she approached the rector of the UOC’s Trinity Church, Father Tarasiy Gavryliv, with a request to hold the service specifically at the UOC church.

According to this account, the priest stated that he was willing to conduct the funeral service himself; however, if the service were to be conducted by OCU clergy, it would have to take place in places of worship belonging to the OCU. Following this, calls for hostile actions against the UOC church were heard at the funeral, and claims spread online that the priest allegedly “refused to open the church to the fallen soldier.”

Separately, a source reports that on June 4, a meeting of OCU activists took place at the local cultural center. The meeting participants were not members of the religious community of the UOC’s Trinity Church, and after the gathering, they began collecting signatures in the village, which directly indicates preparations to seize the religious building.

As a reminder, we previously reported that a protracted conflict is ongoing in the town of Kamin-Kashirsky, Volyn Oblast, over the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is an 18th-century architectural landmark. Despite the fact that, with the assistance of local authorities, the UOC’s religious community—along with the church—was re-registered under the OCU, representatives of Dumenko’s organization have been unable to effectively take possession of the building for two years due to the small size of their congregation.