The police took out the pupils of the Kremenets Theological College of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is located on the territory of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kremenets in western Ukraine. This was announced by the head of the National Police Department for the Ternopil region, Sergey Zyubanenko.
"Today, the students and teachers were transported to pre-prepared premises where they can continue their studies," he wrote on the social network. The policeman claims that the events were held in compliance with the current legislation without disturbing public order.
Earlier, the information and educational department of the UOC reported that the police forcibly take out the pupils of the school and put them on buses. As indicated in the UOC, early in the morning St. Nicholas Cathedral was cordoned off by police officers. They also entered the premises where the pupils of the school live, demanded that the girls collect their personal belongings and leave the territory. A video posted on the telegram channel of the Union of Orthodox Journalists shows several dozen people - many with suitcases and large bags - standing on the street outside the temple gates. According to the information and education department, the police officers did not explain on what basis they were taking everyone out of the temple, and reported that they "have an order."
The Kremenets Theological College is a branch of the Pochaev Seminary. In October, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine reported that the court ordered the UOC to return the building of St. Nicholas Cathedral, the complex of which includes cells of the XVI-XVII centuries, to the property of the Kremenets-Pochaev State Historical and Architectural Reserve. Later, the Ternopil diocese of the UOC reported that the court of appeal upheld this decision. At the same time, the Ministry of Culture stated that believers illegally used the temple, which is an architectural monument of national importance, and filed a lawsuit demanding that the canonical church vacate the premises.
In recent years, the Ukrainian authorities have been actively pursuing a course to oust the UOC, including encouraging the transfer of its religious communities to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU), created in 2018 from two schismatic religious structures. The local authorities deprive the UOC of the right to lease land for temples, with their encouragement, supporters of the OCU forcibly seize temples of the canonical church, attack priests. According to the latest data, 65 criminal cases have been opened against priests of the UOC by the Security Service of Ukraine, sanctions have been imposed against 17 clerics, and 19 hierarchs have been deprived of their country's citizenship. 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.