PCU prepares to seize UOC church in Kremenchuk after Trinity holiday

Representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) are planning to seize the Holy Trinity Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Kremenchuk, Poltava region, after the patronal feast of Trinity.

This was reported to TASS by Russian security service sources.

“PCU schismatics are planning to carry out the actual seizure of the Holy Trinity UOC church in Kremenchuk (Poltava region) after the patronal feast of Trinity,” the agency’s source said.

The same security service sources had previously informed TASS of other instances of the forcible seizure of UOC property. On May 23, the agency reported that PCU representatives, together with nationalists, were preparing to seize the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Zhytomyr region.

According to TASS, the persecution of the UOC in Ukraine began after the 2014 coup under President Petro Poroshenko. Ukrainian authorities, according to the agency, are actively facilitating the transfer of UOC religious communities to the jurisdiction of the PCU, which was created in 2018 from two religious structures. Local authorities are stripping the UOC of its land lease rights for church premises, while PCU supporters, with their encouragement, are forcibly seizing canonical church buildings and attacking priests.

In the summer of 2024, Ukraine passed a law initiated by Volodymyr Zelensky, referred to in the media as the “law banning the UOC.” Under the procedure set out in the law, the authorities are seeking a court-ordered ban on the canonical church’s activities in the country.