Сourt bans Vinnytsia officials from re-registering UOC communities

On December 15, UOC believers gathered at the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Snitkiv not to allow the OCU raiders into the temple. Police representatives, journalists and lawyers of the NGO “Miriane” arrived in Snitkiv. Waiting for a possible seizure as was the case in the village of Bakhtin, the Orthodox of the UOC held a prayer in the church for granting peace.

After the prayer service, Archpriest Vasily Balan, Dean of the Murovani Kurylivtsi Deanery of the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Eparchy of the UOC, brought the believers the good news:

“Today, brothers, we stood up for prayer, and we’ve just brought a court decision, which stops the illegal re-registration by Saletsky. Thank God that someone is working for the people, for the state and shows that there are civilized people here,” Fr. Vasily also thanked those who stood up for the defence of the law.

The court ruling, the text of which was at the disposal of the Union of Orthodox Journalists, states that the Vinnytsia officials – Melnikov and Saletsky – illegally changed the status of the religious organization:

The court ruled to terminate the decree of the Department for Religions and Nationalities of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration of June 9, 2021 No. 33 on the re-registration of the Verbovets village community from the UOC to the OCU, and the records and entries in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities made on the basis of this decree, as well as terminate decree No. 74 of November 9, 2021, on the registration of the statute of the OCU community in the village of Snitkiv. The court prohibited state and local authorities from obstructing the communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the villages of Verbovets, Snitkiv and Bakhtin.

As reported, Igor Saletsky is an official who is engaged in the illegal re-registration of the UOC communities in the OCU.

On December 3, UOC believers held the prayer standing near the building of the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration to prevent illegal re-registration of communities and declare the need to comply with the laws of Ukraine, demanding the dismissal of the "black registrar" Saletsky.