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On Saturday morning, activists of the ‘OCU’ together with ‘priests’ of this structure got into the yard of the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, reported the Information-Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, the attackers tried to penetrate into the Church of the Dormition through the narthex. As Rev. Vitaly Goncharyuk, head of the information department of the diocese of Chernovtsy related, the raiders failed to get inside the church, ‘There was a narthex and the entrance to it was locked up. They managed to break it and wanted to move on but there was another braced door and they failed to open it before the arrival of police who responded to the call in time.

Before the arrival of police, the supporters of the schismatic structure broke the video cameras installed in the church territory and attacked the rector striking him at his chest with a shovel handle and spraying teargas into his face.

Father Vitaly reported that with the arrival of law-enforcement, the situation was stabilized. To prevent further clashes the police became a living corridor between the parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the OCU representatives.

Most of the attackers, the priest emphasized, were not locals since they were brought to the Mikhalcha village in an organized manner to participate in a preplanned assault. According to eyewitnesses, there were from 50 to 100 of them, some armed with brass knuckles.

It was not the first assault on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s church of the Dormition at the Mikhalcha village. The previous attempts to capture the church were made by the OCU supporters in August and November 2019.

DECR Communication Service