Fire destroys UOC church in Rovzhah, Kyiv region

In the village of Rovzhi, Vyshgorod district, Kyiv region, the church in honor of the Nativity of John the Baptist of the Boryspil diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church completely burned down. The incident occurred on the night of January 25, 2026 in the dacha society “Druzhba”. Parishioners and the rector of the church, Archpriest Volodymyr Denysenko, do not rule out that the cause of the fire was deliberate arson, citing similar cases of destruction of UOC churches in other regions.

As the rector of the temple Archpriest Volodymyr Denysenko reported in his Facebook account, by the time the firefighters arrived, the fire had already completely engulfed the wooden building. It was not possible to save the shrine and its property – the structure and all interior elements were destroyed.

The burned church was erected by the joint efforts of Archpriest Vladimir and parishioners at their own expense, serving for many years as a spiritual center for the local community. Here regular services were held, assistance was provided to the needy, migrants and low-income families. The abbot expressed deep sorrow over the incident on his Facebook page, calling it a “nightmare.” He emphasized: “It is hard to even imagine how a person can raise his hand to such a thing – to deliberately burn down a temple, a place of prayer, hope, silence and the presence of God. In this case there are doubts that it was not arson.”

Archpriest Volodymyr also drew parallels with other cases of arson attacks on UOC churches in Novoselki, Vyshgorod district and other regions of Ukraine, noting that, unfortunately , “it was done by those who openly wore a vyshyvanka and patriotically, loudly expressed their love for the country”.

We will remind, earlier we reported that on the night of January 26, 2026 in the village Boguslav Pavlogradsky district of Dnipropetrovsk region there was a large fire in St. Nicholas Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The fire, which covered about 300 square meters, significantly damaged the wooden structures of the building. There were no casualties or injuries as a result of the incident.