Overview

• State representatives took control of the cathedral, diocesan administration and seminary in Volodymyr, Volyn region, on October 10, according to the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
• Police cordoned off the complex and did not allow parishioners inside while authorities began an inventory of property.
• Reports from the scene say officials and unidentified individuals inspected and filmed interior contents without clergy present.
• The enforcement action follows a November 2024 Volyn economic court ruling to return the cathedral to state ownership and a law in force since September 23, 2024 enabling restrictions on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
• The UOC still counts an estimated 5–6 million adherents in Ukraine, according to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience.