Shepetivka. Seizure by local authorities of the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Khmelnytskyi region

Address: 27 Mira Avenue, Shepetivka, Khmelnytskyi Region

The St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Shepetivka was seized by an aggressive mob during the 2023 state-sponsored anti-church campaign.

Following a series of provocations and unprecedented incitement of hatred against Orthodox Christians by the government, militants and raiders seized several cathedrals in various parts of Ukraine.

Both the falsification of documents and the storming of the cathedral took place under the supervision of local authorities and the city mayor himself.

The congregation and clergy of the cathedral survived several raider attempts and the brutal desecration of their church.

Attempts to seize the cathedral began on May 7, 2022.
The main organizer was the mayor of Shepetivka, Vitaliy Buzyl.

From early morning, a group of unknown individuals blocked the entrance to the cathedral and prevented Orthodox residents of the city from attending services.
By 6:00 PM, several thousand people with no connection to the cathedral parish, along with several OCU clergy, had gathered on the church grounds.
Under the leadership of officials, a vote began to "transition" to Epiphanius's structure and "extract" Orthodox clergy from the community.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Eusebius of Shepetivka and Slavuta and 500 Orthodox Christians prayed in the church.

Buzil organized illegal territorial-community meetings at which people unrelated to the religious community “voted” to transfer the church to the OCU.

On June 7, 2022, a group of activists and OCU clergy, with the forceful assistance of unknown individuals, attempted to enter the cathedral and conduct their rites there.

They already had in hand a freshly registered charter, signed by Mayor Buzil.

Cathedral parishioners prevented the criminal group from entering their territory.

On July 7, 2022, the cathedral was illegally re-registered as property of the OCU.

Information about this was published on the city administration's website, further indicating its involvement.

On July 20, 2022, several provocations occurred near the cathedral.

Unknown young men entered the church and locked themselves inside. According to reports from the scene, an elderly parishioner on duty at the church was literally taken hostage.

She felt dizzy, but the hostage-takers refused to allow paramedics into the church for a long time.

Meanwhile, several trucks drove onto the cathedral grounds, carrying wooden shields and tires used by OCU supporters to build barricades.

The only thing that prevented the cathedral from being seized was the large number of believers gathered near the shrine, and police intervention prevented it from being seized.

On April 8, 2023, OCU supporters in Shepetivka launched an assault on the cathedral.

According to eyewitness reports, an aggressive crowd gathered outside the sanctuary and demanded that UOC believers hand it over.

Most parishioners, together with their bishop, stood on the church porch defending their sacred site from the raiders.

Some believers locked themselves inside the church and prayed.

A group of five men in military uniforms used an angle grinder to cut through the locks and broke into the vestibule. After that, the church's defenses were breached.

Aggressive women began pushing children who were praying on their knees, shouting “to the front line,” “follow the Russian ship,” “shame on the Muscovites,” and “get up, haven't you prayed enough yet?”

It seems that the OCU activists were in the church for the first time, judging by the way they looked around, examined the iconostasis, and decided what was best to do in the church at that moment. They decided that it would be best to sing the song “Ukraine, I pray for you as for a sinful and holy mother” — a song that became popular during the Euromaidan.

A group of five men in military uniform used an angle grinder to cut the locks and broke into the porch. After this, the church’s defense was breached.

The raiders tore the interior church doors off from the inside, and the police formed a corridor allowing the mob to flood into the House of God, where they desecrated the altar.

A video was published on the telegram channel of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna diocese, in which a group of “priests” of the OCU enter the altar of the cathedral to the applause and screams of the crowd in the temple.

Оn May 7, at the initiative of the mayor of Shepetivka, Vitaliy Buzyl, supporters of the OCU for the first time came to St. Michael's Cathedral and demanded that it be handed over to the OCU, while the city authorities began to collect signatures from state employees in order to take the cathedral away from the UOC.

On April 8, it became known that the authorities of Shepetivka had taken away the land plots for temples from the UOC.