The authorities of the Rivne region of Ukraine have seized a temple from a religious community of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) for transfer to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). This is reported on the website of the Rivne Diocese of the UOC.
"On May 2, 2025, a commission of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Rivne Regional Military Administration, headed by Yuri Kalitinsky, arrived at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Stadniki in the Ostrog deanery," the text says. "The purpose of the visit was not to carry out an inventory, as is often practiced, but to directly issue an act of acceptance and transfer of a religious building to a registered religious community of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine."
According to the diocese, the believers of the UOC have been worshiping in the church since 1988, but in 2022 the schismatics announced the creation of their own community and reorganized the church for themselves. As a result, the court sided with them.
In recent years, the Ukrainian authorities have been actively pursuing a policy of ousting the UOC, including encouraging the transfer of its religious communities to the jurisdiction of the OCU, created in 2018 from two schismatic religious structures. The local authorities deprive the UOC of the right to lease land for churches, and with their encouragement, OCU supporters forcibly seize temples of the canonical church and attack priests. Law enforcement agencies are accusing the priests of the UOC of treason and other crimes, and sanctions are also being imposed against them.
According to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience of Ukraine, at least 5-6 million residents of the UOC remain parishioners in the country. Despite this, on September 23, 2024, the law on the prohibition of the canonical church, initiated by Vladimir Zelensky, came into force in Ukraine. He demands that the UOC "sever ties" with the Russian Orthodox Church within nine months.