OCU radicals threaten believers in Tarashcha: "We’ll burn you personally!"

On 6 June 2022, activists from the OCU came to Sts Peter and Paul’s Church (UOC) in Tarashcha, Kyiv region, and threatened the rector, Archpriest Sergiy Koziuk. The video was published by the “Orthodox Journalist” Youtube channel.

While parishioners were praying and reading akathist prayers outside the temple, the OCU activists behind its gates sang the anthem of Ukraine and "Chervona Kalyna," shouted "Death to enemies!" and insulted UOC believers. One of the radicals from behind the gate promised the rector that "they would personally burn him". The "priest" of the OCU, Yuriy Salnik, urged the crowd to cut off the lock with a grinder and enter the temple because "citizens of Ukraine have the right to pray in the church".

A UOJ source in Tarashchа said that the UOC Peter and Paul congregation was officially registered back in October 2002 by order of the Kyiv City State Administration. In 2019, Yuriy Salnyk claimed his rights to Sts Peter and Paul’s Church and officially registered in the statute of the "Peter and Paul community", and now Dumenko's supporters claim that this church has belonged to them for 17 years.

"The thing is that the OCU created its community fictitiously by using the decree of the Kyiv Regional State Administration with the same number 648 of 29.10.2002, our source explained.  That is, it retroactively registered it with the address of the UOC community.

Back in 2007, the UOC-KP started the construction of St. George’s Church in the village, which, unlike Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church, has been standing unfinished ever since – without a roof and domes. Here Dumenko's supporters have been gathering for several years for services in the basement, and now they have decided to assert their rights to the church building, which belongs to the UOC community.