On April 4, 2023, at about 5 p.m., supporters of the OCU came to the territory of the Paraskevskaya Church of Novy Korets to cut off the locks on the doors of the temple with a grinder. When the believers of the UOC saw that something was happening near the church and ran to interfere, people from the OCU kicked them out, forbade them to film and photograph, so all photos and videos were taken at a distance. This was reported by the press service of the Rivne diocese, reports the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

Eyewitnesses say that the supporters of the OCU were divided into two groups: twenty people stood in front of the entrance to the territory of the church, the rest committed excesses. The man who cut the locks with a grinder is generally unknown to the locals, he never went to the temple.

The law enforcement officers, who also came to the church, to the question of the believer of the UOC, whether they checked the presence of documents for the possession of a religious building from people from the OCU, answered: “Why are you not in the military registration and enlistment office?”

After the old locks were cut off on the doors of the temple, OCU supporters installed their own and went inside.

Local activist of the OCU Maxim Sas on his Facebook page published documents on the basis of which OCU supporters seized the Paraskevskaya Church in Novy Korets, ousting the legal owners, believers of the UOC. The new religious organization will be headed by a woman, Lesya Ivanovna Turovich.

Archpriest Vasily Nachev, head of the social department at the Rivne diocese of the UOC, said that the religious community of the UOC of the Paraskevsky parish of Novy Korets has all the necessary documents for the temple, which were made back in 1991, no one has canceled them.

“Criminal proceedings regarding the forgery of documents by people from the OCU are open! Supporters of the OCU, from the meeting to the preparation of documents, have always followed the path of lies, Fr. Vasily comments. – The first meeting on the so-called transition took place on the territory of the Paraskevskaya church with the participation of both religious communities. After the vote, the organizers of the OCU admitted their defeat and shook hands with the priest, and a week later they held their meeting in the village club without UOC believers. On their basis, documents for the possession of the Paraskevskaya Church were forged. ”