Attack on faith: the church of the canonical UOC was seized in Odessa

It became known about the seizure of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Odessa by supporters of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The believers who were there tried to resist, but could not protect the shrine. For more information about what happened, as well as about the persecution of the UOC in recent years, see the Izvestia article.

The seizure of the temple in Odessa

The Odessa Diocese of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in its Telegram channel reported the violent seizure of the church in honor of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky, which is located on the territory of a military hospital. They added that clergymen and parishioners who were trying to protect their shrine suffered during the incident.

"A small number of believers who learned about the rapture quickly gathered at the scene. Everything happened very quickly. A group of people claimed that they were a "new community" that had allegedly formed without the knowledge and participation of the temple's real religious community <...>. As a result of these actions, believers were expelled from the temple grounds, and some of them were physically assaulted. The victims were taken away by an ambulance," the publication says.

They added that the community had not made any decisions to change its canonical subordination. In addition, the Odessa diocese "intends to defend the rights of the religious community exclusively in the legal field and apply to the judicial authorities to protect the legitimate interests of believers and return the temple to its legitimate community."

It was also reported that the persons involved in the seizure were allegedly representatives of one of the city's security agencies, which is headed by one of the deputies of the regional council. "In the end, under pressure from circumstances, representatives of the Odessa diocese of the UOC were forced to leave the church, having previously taken the shrines. After their release, the temple building was closed."

At the same time, the OCU has already announced its intention to rename the captured church in honor of St. Agapit of Kiev Caves.

Reaction to the incident

The deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Artem Dmitruk reacted to the incident. In his Telegram channel, he wrote: "Another temple has been taken away."

The Ukrainian authorities are actively pursuing a course to oust the UOC, including by transferring its religious communities to the jurisdiction of the OCU, but the Alexander Nevsky Temple was the first to be seized in Odessa. According to the parliamentarian, for a long time in the city they were afraid to touch Orthodox churches.

"And so the first temple fell. The community, parishioners, and Orthodox people could not defend him. They could not protect their sanctuary, their house of God. They couldn't get together and fight back against those who came to take away the temple. And this is a serious signal. If Orthodox people are not ready to defend their churches, their priests, and their pastors, then the seizures will continue. This case has shown that in Odessa, as in many other cities, the fate of each particular church directly depends on how much the parishioners themselves are ready to defend it," the deputy wrote.

More frequent cases

The current case is far from an isolated one. In recent years, conflicts around churches have been repeatedly recorded in Ukraine.

The persecution began back in 2014. The Ukrainian authorities began to actively promote the transition of the religious communities of the UOC to the jurisdiction of the OCU, created in 2018 from two schismatic religious structures. Local authorities also began to deprive the UOC of the right to lease land for churches, and supporters of the OCU forcibly seize temples of the canonical church and attack priests.

Accusations of treason, "aiding the aggressor country" and "inciting religious discord" against the UOC priests, as well as the imposition of sanctions against them, have also become widespread.

As of mid-2025, since 2014, more than 1,300 churches have been taken away from the canonical UOC. This was stated in an address by Ivan Melnikov, Vice-President of the Russian division of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

At the same time, according to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, by the end of 2025, almost 8 thousand churches remained under the jurisdiction of the UOC, despite all attempts by Kiev to force them to transfer to the OCU. According to the publication, in almost four years since the beginning of the SVR, less than 1 thousand UOC communities have joined the OCU — at the beginning of 2022, 8,782 UOC temples operated in the country, and at the end of 2025, 7,826.

The situation around the Kiev Pechersk Lavra has attracted special attention in recent years. The authorities in Kiev are consistently ousting the UOC from there. In March 2023, the museum-reserve of the same name terminated the lease agreement with the canonical church. In May 2023, the Ministry of Culture, referring to the court's decision, threatened the UOC monks with forcible eviction from the Lower Lavra. Then the department's inventory commission came to the lavra and, with the assistance of the police, changed the locks, seized and sealed the buildings. All this was accompanied by protests by parishioners.