Mykola Medinsky

Mykola Medinsky

UGCC Cleric

UGCC cleric Nikolai Medinsky has been harassing and persecuting Orthodox Christians since 2017.

During his stay in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Medinsky organized one of the first violent seizures of UOC churches in Ukraine since the 1990s.

The UGCC cleric is known for systematically inciting hatred against the clergy and faithful of the UOC, openly calling for violence and reprisals.

Approximately in 2023, Medinsky moved to the Kyiv region, where he began participating in the seizures of UOC churches by OCU activists.

On October 18, 2017, despite the decision of the Ivano-Frankivsk District Administrative Court, a group of UGCC clerics seized the Holy Annunciation Church of the UOC in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk region.

The criminals cut the locks and locked themselves inside the church.

The day before, the Coordinating Council of Military Chaplains, whose members include UGCC priests Mykola Medinsky, Mykhailo Arsenich, Yuriy Atamanyuk, Vasyl Dovganyuk, Mykhailo Dzyuba, Mykola Ostafiychuk, and others, announced a complete ban on the Orthodox community holding services in the Annunciation Church.

The raiders used physical force against Orthodox Christians.

(Source: Press Service of the Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church)

On October 29, 2017, Medinsky called for the effective seizure of another UOC church.

"Another hornet's nest of the Moscow Church (effectively an FSB unit) has been established 500 meters from a strategic facility," Medinsky wrote.

The chaplain appeals to patriots to respond to this "outrageous fact."

(Source: UOJ)

On February 9, 2018, at a press conference at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, Medinsky called for repression against the faithful and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Speaking about the Tithe Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Kyiv, which is under threat of destruction, the controversial chaplain stated: "When FSB agents use icons, cassocks, and crosses as elements of their criminal activity in support of the Moscow chauvinist empire, excuse me, but this is not spirituality, this is not the Church, and this is not a chapel."

In a subsequent speech, Medinsky outlined the "correct course of action" for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

"We must unite in demanding a ban on any activity in Ukraine by those structures and organizations directly influenced by the Moscow Empire, and the Moscow Patriarchate occupies the first place here as the ideological mouthpiece of the 'Russian world' in our land," the UGCC chaplain stated. "We are not persecuting anyone, but we must demand that they all leave our territory until the war ends. Until Russia admits its crimes against the Ukrainian people, until it repents before the entire world for these crimes, until it compensates for the losses suffered by the Ukrainian people, until it returns the stolen territories, until it takes the name that belongs to them: the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. We must strive to restore God's and Ukrainian truth."

On April 5, 2023, during the acute phase of the state expropriation of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Medinsky appeared at the monastery's walls.

Anti-church activists gave a megaphone to a cleric of the UGCC for a speech in which he effectively called for the seizure of the Lavra.

On September 5, 2023, supporters of the OCU seized the Church of Sts. Boris and Gleb of the UOC in Vyshgorod.

A group of raiders, using a hammer and chisel, broke down the doors of the UOC church. However, as can be seen in the video, police did not interfere with their illegal actions.

Mykola Medinsky took part in the invasion of the church.

(Source: UOJ)

In September 2023, during a sermon at the Church of St. Nicholas the Pustynny in the village of Novosilki in the Vyshgorod district, which had been seized by the OCU, Medinsky called on his parishioners to "cleanse" Ukraine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The UGCC cleric stated that "we must cleanse and help cleanse those who are close to us... from the presence of the spiritual occupier," that is, the UOC.

According to him, the Church "has been continuously shaping Russia's presence in the consciousness of the Ukrainian people for decades."

Calling the seizure of the Church of Sts. Boris and Gleb in Vyshgorod "good news" and "the final cleansing of the spiritual occupier," Medinsky called for similar actions in other villages and districts of the region.

"We must try to support the people there and gradually join this work, because we must completely cleanse the city of Vyshgorod, the entire district, and every village—completely cleanse them."

On October 6, 2024, a group of raiders from the OCU seized the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Novosilki in the Kyiv region.

Mykola Medinsky led the attack on the church. According to reports from the scene, a cleric of the UGCC used force against parishioners.