220 parishes of the canonical Church were illegally re-registered in favor of the «Orthodox Church of Ukraine».

In the period from 2015 to 2020, schismatics captured more than 160 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Head of the Representation of the UOC to European international organizations, Bishop of Baryshevka Viktor spoke about this in an interview with the famous international portal News-politics.com.

«Similar offenses began back in 2015, when supporters of the “UOC-Kyivan Patriarchate denomination”, unrecognized by any Local Church, seized about 40 of our churches, with hundreds of attempts at seizures. Then, the activists created at the end of 2018 by ex-President Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople by uniting two non-canonical structures into the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” continued their seizures. As a result of this, in recent years and up to the present, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has lost 122 churches, which were also forcibly, with many violations of the law, were transferred to the “OCU”», – said Bishop Viktor.

In addition, the bishop added, state bodies illegally re-registered 220 parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in favor of the schismatic OCU.

«Despite all the strength of external pressure over the past five years, the UOC is today the largest denomination in Ukraine, numbering 12,338 parishes, 12,411 clergymen, 254 monasteries, in which about 4.5 thousand monastics ascend», – noted Bishop Viktor.