In Cherkasy, OCU representatives tell UN mission how UOC believers “seized the cathedral”

The Cherkasy Diocese of the OCU held a meeting with special representatives of the UN Monitoring Mission, during which they presented their version of the events that took place on October 17, 2024 in Cherkasy. Back then, the Archangel Michael Cathedral of the Cherkasy Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was seized in an extremely aggressive manner. The OCU claims that it was the faithful of the UOC, led by Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy and Kaniv, who attempted to seize the cathedral. The raiders reported this on the Facebook page of the Cherkasy Diocese of the OCU.

“On 26.11.2024, a productive meeting was held with the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, headed by the Head of the Justice Section, Catherine Tiroch. We discussed the unlawful hooliganism and assault on the territory of St. Michael’s Garrison Cathedral by supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate led by Denis Leonidovich Snigirev (Metropolitan of Feodosia), which resulted in dozens of victims, some of whom Catherine had the opportunity to talk to. They documented the third-party ownership of any premises at the parish’s address. We explained to the representative of the Monitoring Mission that Denis Snigirev is not the head of the Cherkasy Diocese of the UOC and provided the relevant documentary evidence. They discussed the problem of the courts’ failure to apply preventive measures in criminal proceedings that would prevent Denis Snigirev from committing new crimes, while the prosecutor’s office constantly requests this. We reported massive violations of the rights of the OCU parishioners to legally use their churches as a result of the illegal actions of individual clerics of the Moscow Patriarchate,” the organization said.

As reported earlier, representatives of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission visited the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy and Kaniv. The reason for the visit was the seizure of the Archangel Michael Cathedral of the UOC in Cherkasy by representatives of the OCU. During the meeting, Metropolitan Theodosius spoke about how the seizure of the church took place.