Bila Tserkva. The Seizure of the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC, Carried Out With Police Participation

The Transfiguration Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Bila Tserkva

Address: Gagarina Street, 10, Bila Tserkva, Kyiv region, 09100

During Soviet times, beginning in 1962, the cathedral was converted into a sports facility. In 1989, the church was transferred to the church community for perpetual use. The church became the cathedral of the Belotserkovsky Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Attempts to seize the cathedral began in the spring of 2023 amid another wave of repressive actions by the Ukrainian authorities. On July 10, 2023, a group of OCU raiders broke onto the cathedral grounds under police protection.

February 23, 2018. Deputy of the Bila Tserkva City Council of the 7th convocation Volodymyr Babenko initiates an inspection of the use of the UOC Preobrazhensky Cathedral and St. Michael's Church, claiming that the churches must be immediately taken away "to preserve the historical heritage." The mayor of the city, Hennadiy Dyky, agreed to the inspections.

On April 11, 2023, a group of activists came to the cathedral demanding that the keys to the church be handed over to them. At that moment, the faithful and clergy were praying on the porch.

A crowd with state flags chants 'Down with the Moscow priest!'

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May 9, 2023 'the authorities came to seal the cathedral'.

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On the evening of July 4, 2023, OCU activists made a second attempt to take the church from Orthodox Christians.

On July 10, 2023, early in the morning, a group of raiders headed by OCU cleric and Bila Tserkva city council member Mykola Hopainych arrived at the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC.

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The activists surrounded the sanctuary and began smashing the church door with sledgehammers. Inside the cathedral was UOC priest Fr. Oleksiy, who bravely defended the church.

The media call the invaders “church parishioners,” but they arrived in cars with license plates from another region - Ternopil. And one of the invaders shows the middle finger to the women and admits that he is not Orthodox, but Protestant.

The raiders were shielded by police, who blocked entrances to the cathedral and prevented parishioners from approaching — even during an air-raid alert.

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The raiders first broke the wood door and then were breaking the metal one throughout three hours. As was said by the diocese, they used an angle grinder, a petrol-powered saw and a sledge hammer, and supporters of the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’ directly took part in the break-in.

It is communicated on the Internet that the seizure was led by Mykola Hopainych, a ‘priest’ of the OCU who is also a member of the city council.

Meanwhile, people of a sporty appearance were blocking the gates and not letting parishioners enter the territory of the cathedral. Physical force was used against parishioners. The police either were inactive or were helping to push away UOC believers, who had come to the cathedral when they found out about its being stormed.

At the same time, as the diocesan press service pointed out, the faithful were gathering with the use of the Internet, as the entry into the belfry was also blocked and those who were on duty in the cathedral were prevented from notifying others of the danger by ringing the bells.

Approximately at 9 a.m., Mykola Hopainych, a member of the city council and a member of an OCU diocese, published a video in which he announced that the seizure of the cathedral of the Holy Transfiguration of the Saviour had happened.

Metropolitan Augustin of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav commented on today’s events for the media, calling what was taking place lawlessness, and underlined that the faithful would not back down and would defend their shrines.

According to him, ‘a forceful seizure of the cathedral’ by OCU supporters has taken place in Bila Tserkva.

He expressed hope that the Lord would be merciful to Orthodox Christians due to their humility and prayer and thanked God for vouchsafing ‘to attest even a little the devotion to the Church’.

However, as Metropolitan Augustin pointed out, the case concerning the cathedral is being considered in court. The diocese disagrees with the local council’s decision to transfer it to the OCU and is convinced that it is necessary to wait for the court’s decision, not to break the doors with a sledge hammer.

"It is unlawful — both the local council’s decision and the way in which it is taking place’, said Vladyka Augustin and added that the faithful would defend their shrines: ‘Whether anybody likes it or not, there is order. And we will oppose what is going on.’

‘Some say that we should unite (with the OCU)… Unite with whom? Even when something occurs in a family, between relatives or in a group, a truce is first necessary for a dialogue. And here? It is merely unbelievable…’ said Vladyka Augustin.

Eyewitnesses also said that members of the OCU broke the arm of a believing woman from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the territory of the cathedral during its seizure. After the fracture, the woman was allowed to come out of the territory of the cathedral, and medics who had come to the call began to reproach her that she ‘should not have come here’.

‘Instead of helping the person, they started to blame her, asking why she had come here. All of this is lawlessness, we understand it’, said a parishioner woman who was near the victim.

The man who smashed the doors of the UOC Cathedral with a sledgehammer also turned out to be a priest of the OCU - this is Andrey Misko, rector of the OCU community in the village of Stavishche.

That is, he came to the city to seize the cathedral, and not at all a “parishioner,” as the archpriest of the OCU and the city council deputy Gopainich, who led the seizure, call them.

The footage shows that Misko wields a crowbar, then takes a sledgehammer and with powerful blows breaks the side doors of the Transfiguration Cathedral leading to the altar.

The spokesman of the OCU announced the victory over "supporters of the Russian world" in Bila Tserkva. In his opinion, the defenders of the UOC Cathedral "have no honor".
"Bishop of Bila Tserkva" Ivan (Eustratiy) Zoria announced in his telegram channel that his subordinates managed to seize the Transfiguration Cathedral of the UOC.

"This morning, the rector of the temple, Archpriest Mykolai Hopainych, and representatives of the eparchy, together with security guards, arrived at the Transfiguration Cathedral to finally enter it, remove the obstacles, created by the supporters of the ‘Russian world’," Zoria wrote, adding that Hopainych went inside at 9 in the morning.

According to the "bishop", the parishioners' defense of their shrine is a "pro-Russian provocation".

"If they had dignity, they would have fulfilled the decision of the Bila Tserkva community and vacated the cathedral without creating a ‘show’ for further circulation of anti-Ukrainian propaganda," Zoria said.