Ihor Saletsky

Ihor Saletsky

Head of the Department for Nationalities and Religious Affairs of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration, director of the municipal enterprise "Administration of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in the City of Sviatohirsk."

Ihor Saletsky became one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called "black registrars" in Ukraine. "Black registrars" are employees of regional state administration offices who carried out illegal registration actions with respect to legal entities.

Saletsky personally and illegally re-registered UOC religious communities into the OCU, thereby directly facilitating raider seizures of churches.

The official became the first and, regrettably, the only "black registrar" whom law enforcement agencies attempted to hold accountable for crimes against Orthodox Christians.

On October 4, 2019, a court in Vinnytsia began hearing a lawsuit against the head of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration's Department for Religious Affairs, Ihor Saletsky, who is accused of the illegal re-registration of religious communities of the Vinnytsia Diocese of the UOC into the OCU.

The head of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration's Department for Religious Affairs is sought to be suspended from his position for 2 months.

Police served Saletsky with a notice of suspicion of arbitrary conduct during the illegal re-registration of UOC churches in the villages of Luka-Meleshkivska and Velyka Kosnytsia.

In addition, the official was suspected of document forgery and abuse of authority as a person providing public services.

Saletsky himself rejected the charges and claimed that the religious communities of the UOC churches he re-registered — including the church in Luka-Meleshkivska — had themselves expressed a desire to join the new ecclesiastical structure.

"This is direct pressure on me, because I was performing my official duties in accordance with the law and did not grant any advantages to anyone. There is a meeting and a decision of the religious community to transfer to the OCU, and we accept the relevant documents from the people," Saletsky said in court. "In particular, this case concerns the already well-known Luka-Meleshkivska and Velyka Kosnytsia in the Yampil district."

The defendant dismissed as "complete nonsense" and "pressure" from the police any suspicion that he might destroy or conceal documents that would confirm his guilt.

According to Saletsky, he learned of the court hearing too late and therefore could not retain a lawyer. The Vinnytsia RSA official stated that this was precisely why he asked the court to reschedule the hearing to Wednesday, when he would be able to "defend himself in accordance with the rights of a citizen of Ukraine."

The official accused the plaintiffs of allegedly "pressuring him with suspension."

Investigating judge Ihor Vyshar granted Saletsky's request and ordered the hearing in his case rescheduled to 11:00 a.m. on October 10, 2019.

On October 10, 2019, the next court hearing in the case of Ihor Saletsky took place in Vinnytsia.

Following the hearing, the Vinnytsia City Court ruled to suspend Saletsky from the performance of his duties for a period of two months.

OCU supporters held pickets outside the National Police building and then outside the Vinnytsia City Court.

"Inside the courtroom there were also some OCU representatives — specifically from Luka-Meleshkivska — including one priest whom I do not personally know, and who conducted himself in a rather improper manner," the press secretary of the Vinnytsia Diocese added. "Right in the courthouse corridor, when a recess was announced for deliberation, arguments broke out; OCU parishioners were shouting their usual slogans — 'get rid of the Moscow priest,' 'get out of Ukraine' — all at the top of their voices."

According to him, after the ruling was announced, approximately 30 OCU supporters, including representatives of the "clergy," were gathered outside the courthouse.

On October 18, 2019, the Vinnytsia Court of Appeal declared invalid the Vinnytsia City Court's decision to suspend Ihor Saletsky for 2 months from the performance of his duties as head of the Department for Nationalities and Religious Affairs of the Vinnytsia RSA.

The Vinnytsia City Court had justified its decision to suspend Saletsky on the grounds that the official might influence witnesses and destroy important documents in the case concerning the illegal re-registration of UOC religious communities in the Yampil District and Luka-Meleshkivska into the OCU.

According to Saletsky's attorney, Tetyana Kashpruk, the official's offense falls within the category of minor offenses, and the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine stipulates that suspension from office may only be applied in cases involving offenses of medium gravity.

Furthermore, the official and his attorney refuted the possibility of Saletsky using his official powers to destroy case documents or pressure witnesses.

The prosecutor objected to granting the appeal.

The judges spent approximately 20 minutes in deliberation before ruling to grant Saletsky's appeal.

(Source: UOJ)

On October 26, 2019, the Vinnytsia Diocese of the UOC reported that the official is not afraid to disregard the law and morality while exclusively supporting the OCU.

The statement was published following an appearance by the head of the Vinnytsia RSA Department for Religious Affairs, Ihor Saletsky, on one of the television channels.

The diocese believes that the official "once again demonstrated that the position he occupies serves the interests not so much of the state as of the Vinnytsia-Bar Diocese of the OCU."

"It would seem that a civil servant ought to maintain a neutral position, being, so to speak, above the conflict," the statement reads. "However, Saletsky's actions demonstrate that in the inter-confessional conflict, the head of the Department for Nationalities and Religious Affairs of the Vinnytsia RSA acts exclusively in the interests of the OCU, while being well aware that he is violating the law."

A clear and by no means isolated example of this, the diocese believes, is the situation surrounding the registration of the change of subordination of the religious community of the village of Luka-Meleshkivska.

Moreover, Saletsky's position forces him to "improvise poorly, inventing terms that exist neither in law nor in any charter — such as, for example, 'ordinary members of the religious community.'"

"In an attempt to pass off his own arbitrary conduct as the performance of official duties by any means possible, the official claims that the decision on a change of subordination is made at a general meeting of 'ordinary members of the religious community,' presumably believing that in this way he can somehow 'attach' to the religious community people who had no connection to it and still do not, but who want the local church to belong to the OCU," the diocesan press service noted.

In his address, the official persistently proposed introducing alternating services in the disputed churches, and "such proposals are made from time to time by OCU clergy as well — supporters of this structure have on multiple occasions sent official communications to the Vinnytsia Diocesan Administration with proposals and even demands to permit alternating services in certain churches of the Vinnytsia Diocese."

"At this point there is hardly any need to repeat the well-known truths that alternating services can be a compromise option only in churches that are common Christian shrines jointly owned by several confessions. Or to recall that the practice of alternating services is contrary to the canons and is unacceptable for the clergy and faithful of the UOC," the press service noted.

At the same time, the diocese emphasized that in the villages where OCU communities are demanding alternating services in churches, all conditions exist for the construction of their own churches, and the leadership of the Vinnytsia Diocese of the UOC has repeatedly offered assistance with construction, "but the latter, even having the opportunity to build their own church, continue to insist on alternating services — that is, on creating a situation where one church must be shared by two confessions."

"Meanwhile, the community of the Transfiguration Cathedral has been praying in the open air for several months already, regardless of the weather, which worsens by the day, while Metropolitan Symeon has at his disposal both the cathedral building itself and the lower church, which is almost always empty. It is also worth mentioning the village of Makhnovka in the Koziatyn District, where a priest, upon joining the OCU, took three churches with him and is now refusing to allow the UOC community into even the church in which he does not serve at all, using the premises to store building materials. Yet Ihor Oleksandrovych proposed alternating services neither to Metropolitan Symeon nor to the defecting priest from Makhnovka," the diocesan press service noted.

In conclusion, the Vinnytsia Diocese of the UOC called on Ihor Saletsky to remember the ethics of a civil servant: "As we can see, an ordinary official is not afraid to disregard the law and morality while supporting a particular confession. Though, is it not time, at last, to remember decency, honor, and the ethics of a civil servant?"

(Source: UOJ)

On October 30, 2019, investigators conducted a seizure of registration and incorporation documents related to the registration of OCU religious communities in the village of Novozhy­votiv (Orativ District) and the urban-type settlement of Vapniarka (Tomashpil District) of Vinnytsia Oblast at Saletsky's workplace.

The search was conducted pursuant to a court order for the seizure of documents, within the framework of the criminal proceedings opened against the official for the illegal re-registration of UOC communities into the OCU.

Ihor Saletsky, who is suspected of abuse of authority and who was scheduled to appear at a court hearing in Trostianets that day to "represent the interests of the state," stated that two weeks earlier an investigator had already seized a number of documents from him, and that the new search was nothing other than an attempt to obstruct him in the performance of his official duties.

(Source: UOJ)

On November 14, 2019, human rights advocate Lesia Alexandrydi reported that law enforcement officers conducting investigative actions in the criminal cases against the head of the Vinnytsia RSA Department for Religious Affairs, Ihor Saletsky, are being subjected to pressure.

In a broadcast on "Pershyi Kozatskyi," she spoke about the coordinated actions of the official's supporters — protests, threats to block roads or obstruct government bodies.

"It is very telling that clergymen of the newly created OCU structure are participating in these events, which make use of openly impermissible and offensive slogans," Alexandrydi noted.

A public audit of the religious beliefs of law enforcement officers is absolutely impermissible, the legal expert emphasized.

"The UOC is registered and operates within the framework of Ukrainian legislation, and its parishioners are not some kind of second-rate, improper citizens," she reminded.

According to the expert, statements by Saletsky's representatives treat the mere existence of criminal proceedings against the official and the existence of a UOC church on the territory of the Vinnytsia Police Department as supposedly evidence of some kind of lobbying for the interests of that particular confession and an anti-Ukrainian stance on the part of law enforcement officers.

Such statements are aimed exclusively at manipulating public opinion, the legal expert concluded.

(Source: UOJ)

On December 6, 2019, 25,265 people from the Vinnytsia and Tulchyn Dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church signed an open address by clergy and faithful to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

The documents were delivered to the President's Office by Metropolitan Varnsonofiy of Vinnytsia and Bar and Metropolitan Ionafan of Tulchyn and Bratslav, as reported by the Vinnytsia Diocese on its Facebook page.

📘 The address concerns the persecution of UOC religious communities in Vinnytsia Oblast, as the head of the Vinnytsia RSA Department for Religious Affairs, Ihor Saletsky, is lobbying the interests of the OCU. The faithful reported on raider schemes for seizing churches and on the inter-confessional conflict in the village of Luka-Meleshkivska, which has been ongoing for approximately half a year. The faithful are also outraged by the fact that Metropolitan Varnsonofiy of Vinnytsia and Bar has been denied state registration as diocesan head for approximately one year on various artificially contrived grounds.

On December 3, 2021, a prayer vigil was held outside the building of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration by faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church who were concerned about the attempted illegal re-registration of UOC communities in the villages of Bakhtyn, Verbovets, and Snіtkiv in Vinnytsia Oblast.

This was far from the first attempt at church raiding against these communities.

A group of faithful arrived despite police obstruction of the believers' travel to the prayer service. A large police presence and National Guard vehicles were on site. The prayer service passed without incident.

After the prayer service, the faithful intended to submit a statement demanding the resignation of the head of the Vinnytsia RSA Department for Religious Affairs, Ihor Saletsky, who bears direct responsibility for the re-registration of Ukrainian Orthodox Church communities against their will.