Pro-OCU Groups Reported to Seize UOC Churches in Cherkasy and Kirovohrad

Overview

• SPZh reported that supporters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine took control of UOC churches on December 23 in Chyhyryn, Cherkasy region, and in Checheliivka, Kirovohrad region, with the accounts relayed by TASS and RIA.
• In Chyhyryn, the action was attributed to activist Nazarij Zasansky, who allegedly arrived with about 50 people in military-style clothing claiming recruitment-center affiliation and entered by cutting the locks with an angle grinder.
• In Checheliivka, supporters reportedly cut locks at the long-sealed Pokrovsky church as police were present and formed a corridor, OCU cleric Mark Levkiv announced an inventory of property, and witnesses alleged an assault on UOC priest Protoiereus Dmytry Gorodetsky.
• SPZh says the Chyhyryn parish had been administratively re-registered into OCU jurisdiction on February 21, 2025 without the UOC community’s consent.
• Separate reports cited by TASS and RIA state that 7,826 UOC churches remain active nationwide, with 934 documented parish transfers to the OCU in nearly four years, including 157 in 2025.