A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was tried in Volyn for holding an unauthorized procession

In the city of Kovel, Volyn region, a clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was brought to court «for organizing and holding a religious procession without the appropriate permission of the local authorities. The subject of the court proceedings was the fact that the procession was held on the territory of the local hospital, where the St. Panteleimon’s Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, whose rector is the mentioned cleric, is also located.

As follows from the report, the priest organized a procession with the participation of believers on the territory of the hospital on the day of memory of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, which is the feast day for the community. Since this event was not coordinated with the executive committee of the city council, the rector of the St. Panteleimon church of the UOC Archpriest Vladimir Shkvark was brought to administrative responsibility.

Upon consideration of the circumstances of the «offense», the court ruled to bring the clergyman to administrative responsibility for «violation of the law». Judge Oleksiy Shyshilin decided to recognize the priest Vladimir Shkvark guilty of committing an administrative offense under part 1 of article 185-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, and impose on him an administrative penalty in the form of a warning, as well as to charge him a court fee in favor of the state in the amount of 605.60 hryvnia.

We shall remind you that on August 22, 2025 the city council of Zbarazh published a decision, according to which it prohibited the participants of the procession of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church believers from Kamyanets-Podilskyi to Pochaev Lavra to pass through the city. The city administration did not specify the reasons for the ban. Later, a similar ban was also published by the Zbarazhazh district administration.