In Ukraine, TCC employees kidnapped two UOC priests immediately after the liturgy
In Transcarpathia, employees of the territorial recruitment center (TCC, the analog of the military recruitment office in Ukraine) kidnapped two priests of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) immediately after the liturgy. This was reported by Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmytruk on September 22.
"Warriors" twisted and forced into a busik (minibus. - Ed.) Father Vasily from Khust diocese and Father Stepan from Odessa diocese. During the kidnapping non-humans used force against the bishops, took away their phones and disconnected them," he wrote in his Telegram-channel.
The MP informed that immediately after the incident, hundreds of people gathered at the Khust TCC, also activists blocked the roads.
A few hours after the incident, Dmytruk said that the clergymen were released.
"Father Vasily and Father Stepan are at liberty. <...> The priests have been given back their phones, documents. Father Stepan, who is a cleric of the Odessa diocese, the TCC gave three days to leave the Transcarpathian region, and also obliged to report to the TCC of Odessa in three days," - he said. Father Vasily, in turn, was obliged to report to the Khust military enlistment office in the Transcarpathian region exactly one month later.
On the same day in the Transcarpathian region protodeacon of the Khust diocese of the canonical UOC Vladimir Petrovtsev was mobilized in the AFU.
On August 20, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a bill allowing the canonical UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate to be banned from operating in the country. Kiev gave it nine months to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and dioceses and parishes to withdraw from its membership.
In December 2023, it was reported that a Ukrainian priest received a summons because of the words "servant of God" at a military funeral. The commissar who issued the summons explained that he felt personal animosity after the funeral of his son. An employee of the Territorial Completion Center (TCC) also threatened the clergyman to "load him like a dog" if he did not report to the military enlistment office.
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned these measures and called on human rights organizations to stand together against the actions of the Ukrainian authorities aimed at destroying Orthodoxy. The Jerusalem Patriarchate and Pope Francis also condemned the ban.
Kiev's persecution of the UOC began back in 2022: criminal cases were brought against clergymen and monks, they were expelled from churches, which were seized by unknown people in military uniforms. Temples, churches and even the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra were searched: they were looking for traces of "anti-Ukrainian activity". Believers tried to defend the temples, the seizure of which was almost always accompanied by violence, and went out to rallies, but they could do nothing.
