In Kopytov police chief-led raiders taking over the UOC temple

In the village of Kopytov in Korets district, Rovno region, the temple is being seized by the OCU supporters

In the village of Kopytov in Korets district, Rovno region, the temple is being seized by the OCU supporters. Raiding is initiated by the police chief of Korets district department.

On April 10, 2019, supporters of the OCU came to the temple of St. John the Theologian in Kopytov village at about 10 am demanding to give them the church.

By that time, a large community of believers of the UOC had already been notified of possible raiding and were standing in front of the temple door, reading the akathist.

According to eyewitnesses, among those who had gathered at the church were also people from other settlements, many young people.

The police, who came on call, evidently sided with the activists of the OCU; the believers even heard that the head of the Korets district police department, Mr. Karpiuk, agreed with his subordinates the plan to push the believers of the UOC from the door of the temple.

As reported by the UOJ, representatives of the local administration were directly involved in stirring up an inter-confessional conflict in Kopytov village. The activists collected signatures in support of the transition of St. John the Theologian parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the new religious structure. It turned out that the signature collection was organized by representatives of the local administration, who by intimidating and manipulating compelled villagers to move to the new church.

It will be recalled that the supporters of the OCU failed to persuade the UOC believers in the village of Kopytov to change the denomination despite the pressure and fibs the activists had resorted to in the village for two weeks. As it became known to the UOJ, the initiator of the interfaith conflict in the village was Pavel Sukhoy, an official from the Korets RSA.

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