The chairman of the DECR of the UOC, Metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovina Meletiy, at a sermon on the day of memory of St. John Chrysostom, said that during the search that took place in the diocese on November 25, 2022, representatives of the SBU gave him “good advice” – to go to the OCU.

“They came at the seventh hour, unexpectedly and spectacularly. They knocked out all the doors in the diocese, as if someone did not want to let them in. They came with machine guns, shouting, squealing, squabbling everywhere, saying: “Get up, hands up.” I’m in my pajamas, and I don’t even know what to do. They announced the decision to me, warned me and began a search. They took phones, disks from the computer, and they didn’t even let my lawyer in, for a minute I thought that I was not in democratic free Ukraine, but in some kind of North Korea, ”says the bishop.

He also said that the representatives of the SBU officers gave him “good advice.”

“Privately, one of the kind people in the mask called me over and said: “If you want such a circus not to continue and in the future you live in peace, go to the OCU.” I turned around and left,” recalls Metropolitan Melety.