Scandal in Kamianets-Podilskyi: Icon Painter Accuses Head of Local OCU Diocese of Threats and Failure to Pay Fees

A high-profile scandal has erupted in Kamianets-Podilskyi surrounding the leadership of the local branch of the OCU. Icon painter Oksana Kuzishin has accused Herman Semanchuk, head of the Kamianets-Podolsk Diocese of the OCU, Herman Semanchuk, of fraud, making threats, and refusing to pay for work completed on the frescoes at the OCU’s St. John the Baptist Monastery. According to the website “Pershyi Kozatskyi,” the conflict became public after the artist faced pressure from law enforcement agencies and unknown individuals.

According to the source, in May 2025, Oksana Kuzishin entered into a contract with Herman Semanchuk to paint the monastery at a rate of 150 euros per square meter. By mid-June, the artist and her assistant had completed 266 square meters of the work, but the promised payment had not been received in full. To back up her claims, Kuzishin provided correspondence in which the bishop uses profanity and mentions the involvement of City Mayor Mikhail Positko in financing the project.

The situation escalated on July 25, 2025, on the eve of the church’s consecration. According to the iconographer, at Semanchuk’s initiative, she and her assistant were detained by police and SBU officers, who prevented them from entering the monastery grounds. Later, inside the church itself, the artist was met by Herman Semanchuk himself and a group of athletic-looking men. During the incident, the OCU hierarch, according to Kuzishin, threatened her with violence.

Ultimately, Semanchuk paid only half of the amount demanded. Currently, the aggrieved party has appealed to the head of the OCU, Epiphanius Dumenko, demanding that he intervene in the situation and ensure payment of the funds owed.

As a reminder, it was previously reported that the Volyn Diocese of the OCU, instead of building a spiritual and educational center, resold the plot to a private construction company that plans to build residential housing on it. The plot in question is 0.54 hectares on Derzhavnosti Street in Lutsk, which had been in the permanent use of an OCU entity for about 15 years.