In Bukovina, police dragged a 65-year-old priest in liturgical robes around the church

On March 22, 2023, police representatives came to the church in honor of the Ascension of the Lord in the village of Babin, Chernivtsi region, and began to use physical force against the priest, who had just performed the Sacrament of Unction and did not even have time to take off his liturgical vestments. This was reported by the Information and Educational Department of the UOC.

The incident was preceded by meetings of the territorial community of the village, at which people who did not belong to the religious community of the Ascension Church decided to transfer the church under the jurisdiction of the OCU.

To fulfill this illegal decision, local supporters of the OCU came with the police on March 22, at a time when the rector of the church, the dean of the Kelmenets district, Archpriest John Protsyuk, performed the sacrament of Unction of the parishioners of the temple.

As Archpriest John noted in a commentary to the Information and Education Department of the UOC, for 34 years of his service in Babin, he did not see that the people who came to take away the church had previously attended services in it.

In order for the police to allow Father John to complete the sacrament, he had to persuade them for about half an hour.

After the completion of the Unction, the supporters of the OCU, together with their “priest”, tried to force their way into the altar and began to push away the believers of the UOC. In order to prevent the desecration of the shrine, Father John tried to prevent the actions of aggressive activists. However, in relation to him, the police began to use brute physical force and drag him around the temple. It should be noted that after the completion of the sacrament, Father John did not even have time to take off his liturgical robes.

One of the police officers who was dragging the 65-year-old priest yelled at him: “Stop committing crimes!”

As a result of these actions on the part of aggressive supporters of the OCU and the police, Archpriest John Protsyuk and the parishioners of the temple are forced to leave their shrine and pray in the parish house.