To date, about 500 cases of seizure or illegal re-registration of religious communities of the UOC have been recorded. This was stated by the Chairman of the Legal Department of the UOC, Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, at the congress of representatives of the seized churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, according to the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

“Of these, we filed about 400 lawsuits to protect our rights, and about 250 criminal proceedings were opened in connection with illegal actions aimed at seizing churches and illegal re-registration of religious communities of the UOC,” the representative of the UOC stressed.

Father Alexander is convinced that in Ukraine, as a European country, there is no place for such gross violations of citizens’ rights.

“Today a congress of parishes was held, the churches of which were seized. People shared their problems, their pain, their suffering. After all, those oppressions and violations of the rights of people on the ground should not occur in a European country. They also adopted appeals to the President of Ukraine, the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, to the deputies with a request to protect the right to freedom of religion of believers. And also, appropriate actions were taken within the competence to abolish the anti-constitutional laws adopted in 2018, “the lawyer summed up.