The Khmelnitsky diocese of the UOC denied allegations of a mass conversion of parishioners to schismatics

The Khmelnitsky Diocese of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has refuted the allegations of the regional authorities about the alleged mass conversions of parishioners to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU).
"Indeed, since February 2022, voluntary transfers of UOC parishes to the subordination of the OCU have taken place in the Khmelnitsky diocese, but they are calculated not by hundreds, but by several dozen," the press service of the diocese said on Facebook (banned in Russia; owned by Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation). At the same time, 93 churches were taken away from the diocese in an "illegal illegal way". Nevertheless, the Khmelnitsky diocese noted that at least 60 religious communities expelled from churches continue to worship in new premises adapted for this purpose and "wish to continue to remain subordinate to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church." "This trend has a positive trend," the press service concluded.
A week ago, Inna Mikhailova, director of the Department of Information Activities, Culture and Religions of the Khmelnitsky Regional Military Administration, said at a briefing that since February 2022, almost 300 religious communities have left the subordination of the UOC in the Khmelnitsky region.
The Ukrainian authorities are actively pursuing a course to oust the UOC. The canonical Church is being deprived of the right to lease land for temples on the ground, with the encouragement of the authorities, supporters of the schismatic PCU forcibly seize the temples of the canonical church, attack priests. As of November 4, 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine has opened criminal cases against 70 priests of the UOC since February 2022, including 16 metropolitans, 19 hierarchs have been deprived of citizenship of the country. On October 19 last year, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading a bill prepared by the government on behalf of President Vladimir Zelensky aimed at banning the UOC.
Despite this, according to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience of Ukraine, at least 5-6 million residents remain parishioners of the UOC in the country.
According to TASS materials