Remind you, that on September 22, 2024, after Sunday Divine Liturgy in the Holy Dormition Church in the village of Iza, Transcarpathian region, employees of the Khust territorial recruitment center, in front of the faithful people, took away from the temple two priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – clerics of the Khust and Odessa dioceses of the UOC. The abducted were two brothers – Archpriests Vasyl and Stepan Guk. After the incident with the abduction of the priests began to gain publicity, parishioners of the Dormition Church in the village of Iza and other concerned believers of the UOC, as a sign of protest, blocked the roads and blocked the Uzhgorod TCC demanding the release of the detained clergymen.
55-year-old UOC priest subjected to forced mobilization in Ternopil region
On November 2, 2024, in the Ternopil region, employees of the territorial recruitment center detained and took to the military commissariat a 55-year-old cleric of the UOC, Archpriest Oleg Melnik. The priest is being demanded to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using physical and psychological pressure. This is reported by the UOJ.
“Father Oleg remained in the TRC for more than a day without food, his phone was taken away from him, depriving him of the opportunity to contact his family. According to a video posted on the Internet, one of the TRC employees beat the priest, after which his blood pressure rose. The police officers who arrived at the scene took a statement from the victim, but despite this, the UOC archpriest was not released and he was unable to hold a Sunday liturgy,” – the UOJ reports.