"With our funds, we're financing the persecution of Christians in Ukraine"
A large-scale video investigation about the crimes of the OCU and the authorities against the UOC was released in the USA.
The leader of the youth wing of the Republican Party of the USA, Catherine Whiteford, posted a video investigation on her X about the crimes of the OCU and government representatives against UOC communities. We publish the full text of the politician's video speech.
Today I want to talk about the great myth of religious freedom in Ukraine. I want to make it clear from the outset—this is not about Russia versus Ukraine. Ukraine’s issues do not exonerate Russia for its many crimes. But our tax dollars are not funding Russia; they are funding Ukraine. If we refuse to confront the truth about the Ukrainian government and just how far it is from being a free and fair society that respects basic human rights, we not only fail to bring a swift and acceptable peace to its people, we also fail to live up to the ideals enshrined in our own Bill of Rights.
This is especially important as just yesterday, May 20, 2025, a day when the people of Ukraine and their rights are especially threatened if we, people of conscience and goodwill, do nothing. Vice President JD Vance spoke about this problem when he was still an Ohio senator and nominated for vice president. But how many people heard him? Hear me today.
The Ukrainian government officials and law enforcement agencies are directly involved in this religious repression. Warning: some of the footage you are going to see may be unsettling. This video will show concrete evidence of the violent religious persecution sweeping through the Ukrainian nation. I will show how involved in religious discrimination Ukrainian officials are and I will name specific names. Sooner or later, they must be held accountable.
This did not start yesterday, and the whole situation is a clear signal about the general attitude to human rights on the part of the Zelensky government. So, let’s look just at a couple of examples of what the government of Ukraine is turning its country into. A government almost entirely funded by the tax dollars of American citizens. Remember, these are our tax dollars are at work here.
In the first video, we’ll see and hear an elderly Christian woman from the Ukrainian city of Krasyliv. In despair, she calls out for her son, a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fighting at the front.
This recording was made on May 15, and the police officers you see on the screen are not here to protect the law. No, they came to assist in the seizure of the church being carried out by activists of the so-called OCU, the new state-supported church organization. While her son is fighting for his life in the trenches, far away in Western Ukraine, his mother and hundreds of other believes are being violently deprived of their church, their place of prayer, by Zelensky’s government.
These seizures are being carried out by well-equipped police, strong young men desperately needed at the front. But here in the rear, they’re fighting with women, the elderly and devoted clergy. This is what the unfortunate woman says, addressing her son Serezha, who is in the trenches while his mother is being abused. This video is a cry from the heart of one of the thousands and thousands of believers of the UOC, patriotic citizens of Ukraine, who have already had their churches taken away.
As of today, over 1,500 churches out of approximately 12,000 belonging to the believers of the UOC have been seized through raids, through falsification of documents and direct violence. And most of these 1,500 were seized under Zelensky's rule, especially after the campaign of the so-called spiritual independence he announced in December of 2022. In fact, this campaign is nothing more than an illegal state program of repression against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the oldest and largest Christian church in Ukraine.
Some have tried to claim that this is “the Moscow-linked church” but this is nothing more than propaganda. The UOC gained administrative independence from Moscow in October of 1990. A relationship of friendship was maintained and the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and all Ukraine, was granted an honorary seat in the Russian Council of Bishops.
With the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, however, Metropolitan Onuphry and the UOC formally broke all contact and communion with the Russian Church.
In fact, the former Ukrainian Minister of Ethnopolitics Olena Bohdan concluded a study which determined there were no connections between the two churches. When this was announced, she was fired and replaced, which seems awfully convenient.
But let's return to the situation in Krasyliv, where on May 15 a group of activists from the new state-supported church with the help of the police seized the Resurrection Cathedral of the UOC.
They have been trying to take the cathedral by various means since 2023. Prior to the video, they had already made several attempts to seize it. The mayor of the city, Nila Ostrovska, personally admitted to trying to pressure the community and force them to switch to the state-supported OCU.
Under her leadership, the local council voted back in April of 2023 to ban the UOC on the territory and terminate the UOC's right to use land lot, which, of course, is an absurd and illegal decision, which no one implemented. On December 23, she admitted on television that, I quote, "We have somewhat exceeded our authority by making this decision."
At the same time, at the instigation of the authorities, a fake vote for the transition to the OCU was held in the city, in which random residents of the city took part and not the church community. Its illegitimacy was confirmed by the words of Mayor Nyla Ostrovska herself, stating that it was not the church community that gathered but, I quote, "Krasyliv residents, i.e just city residents, came out to a general meeting, expressed their desire, put their signatures and for the UOC to transition to the OCU.”
At the same time, the believers of the UOC held their legal meeting, confirmed their loyalty to the UOC and defended their church not letting the would-be raiders in.
Here is another quote from the mayor, which finally dots the i’s: “Unfortunately, the rectors and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church really do not want to voluntarily transition to the OCU. Although I have repeatedly met with the priest and tried to convince him, unfortunately there is no voluntary transition.” Like she says, no one has voluntarily transitioned anywhere.
Can you imagine something like this in America? A city mayor using administrative resources to pressure citizens to switch from one church to another and then reporting on her successes on television. How long would such a mayor hold her office before she was taken out of her office in handcuffs?
But this is not America. This is Ukraine. And in Ukraine. this behavior is acceptable.
Unable to force people to change their faith, the authorities in Krasyliv and the state-supported, the OCU, decided to seize the church from its rightful owners.
Anyways, several attempts were made to seize it, which the courageous Orthodox Christians were able to withstand. It was only on May 15th of 2025, early in the morning, when the thugs from the OCU with unprecedented large-scale assistance from the police forced their way onto the cathedral grounds, cut the locks and seize the cathedral.
As they forced their way in, these thugs attacked the priest, Archpriest Oleksandr Dunets, who was inside the church, trying to prevent the loss of the Holy Church of God. They violently threw him to the floor and took away the phone, with which he was filming the lawlessness that was unfolding. This moment was captured on video by a parishioner of the church.
At the same time one of the leaders of the seizure, the cleric and “dean” of the OCU Ivan Kulinich breaks through to the cathedral's altar allegedly “to pray” while his buddies beat Fr Oleksandr.
The attack on Fr. Oleksandr took place in front of the police, and they did nothing. After the raiders entered the cathedral, the police barricaded the doors of the temple, as well as the entrance to the property in order to prevent arriving UOC believers from returning to their temple. This is the moment when the woman we mentioned earlier, the mother of a Ukrainian soldier, was filming, addressing her son as Serezha.
Notice how there are many unidentified physically fit men on the property. Mercenaries for street fights called “titushki” in Ukraine ever since Maidan. They hide their faces, avoid the camera… Is this the same community of OCU believers for whom the temple was seized? Tell me if you came for what is rightfully yours, would you behave like this? Hide your faces, dodge the camera? Of course, not. But if you know that you're committing a crime, that is exactly how you would behave.
That hired thugs are being thugs is no surprise. What is shocking is that the police are directly participating in this crime with them. They're acting together in the same ranks, shoulder-to-shoulder, against the owners of the cathedral, the believers of the UOC. See for yourself.
Moreover, the entire director of the Khmelnytskyi municipal enterprise “Electrotrans”, Serhiy Bobukh, is participating in the seizure. Nor is this his first time. On other occasions, he's come with an electric cutting wheel to cut off the locks.
Head of the Khmelnytskyi Municipal Enterprise. Photo: Bobukh's Facebook
Also, on the cathedral's property, as part of the attacker's group, citizens identified several high-ranking Ukrainian security officials in civilian clothes, who did not introduce themselves and did not show documents. One of them is an employee of the SBU department for the Khmelnytskyi region, Yuri Oleksandrovych Sharahov. Here he is in green pants in the photo. Another is the head of the Krasyliv Police Department, Roman Tomchyshyn. Another is the head of the Preventive Activities Department of the Main Directorate of the national police in the Khmelnytskyi region, Valentyn Biliansky.
Is there any doubt that these high-ranking law enforcement officials are directing the seizure of the cathedral and are directly involved in this crime? Just like the thugs they are directing. They refuse to identify themselves. And I wonder why?
No matter how much they try to justify and legitimize these crimes through illegal court decisions to transfer the temple to the OCU on the basis of that very fake vote in 2023, of which the mayor herself admitted, the fact that all this is one continuous crime is clear to the naked eye. A crime which local authorities and law enforcement agencies are so directly involved that there is no doubt who the main perpetrator is.
To my fellow Americans, I ask you to remember the names of these officials – Ostrovska, Bobukh, Kulinich, Biliansky, Tomchyshyn, Sharahov – all of whom would have already been brought to justice in the US.
God willing, Ukrainians will live to see peace, victory over their aggressor, the restoration of democracy, and the rule of law in their country. I've said this before and I will say it again: I and the absolute majority of the Republican Party of the United States support Ukraine and its sovereignty. We sympathize with the struggle of the Ukrainian people for independence and freedom.
Ukraine is a wonderful country, a wonderful and courageous people with a rich culture and proud history. A history above all else of perseverance. However, today the evidence shows that it is ruled by criminal elites who destroy basic civil rights in this European country.
Ukrainians deserve better, and believers of the UOC deserve equality and protection of their legal rights.
That is why I'm recording this video. I want to repeat that what happened in Krasyliv is not something unique. There are hundreds of such cases when the authorities openly participate in the seizure of churches and the suppression of freedom of religion. The UOC has been completely forced out of two provinces of Ukraine – Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv.
In the same Khmelnytskyi region, on July 2022, a group of the state-sponsored OCU activists led by the chairman of the Khmelnytskyi District Council, Oleksandr Chernievych, came to the Church of St. Paraskeva in the village of Pyrohivtsi to seize the temple in the middle of the service. The video recorded how Chernievych himself beats women and throws them to the ground. The priest was literally dragged along the ground. The police present at the scene did nothing and watched the massacre.
On April 12th, 2025, during the seizure of the St. Nicholas Church of the UOC in the village of Verkhni Stanivtsi in Bukovyna, together with activists of the state-sponsored OCU, police officer Sviatoslav Kishlar, head of the Department of Preventative Activities of the Main Directorate of the national police in the Chernivtsi region, is one of the first to cross the fence dismantled by the raiders and enter the territory of the church together with them.
Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of the National Police of the Chernivtsi Region Sviatoslav Kishlar. Photo: Max Kozmenko
Law enforcement officers do not interfere but actually allow them to break first the fence and then the doors of the church. The police themselves use physical force against the believers of the UOC, pushing them away from the raiders, even taking the invaders under the protection and creating a human corridor for them.
One of the police officers loses his temper with a parishioner of the UOC who reproaches him for complicity in the crime and violently assaults her. Thus, the police ensure the success of the seizure of the church in Verkhni Stanivtsi after the previous attempt to seize it failed on the night of April 8 and 9.
That night, believers defended their church from an attack by a raiding party led by a priest of the state-sponsored OCU, known serial church raider Roman Hryshchuk. Without the police, they were and remain in the minority.
And you can assess the size and unity of the Nocholas community of the UOC in Verkhni Stanivtsi, from which the church was taken away, by these videos from the Easter service, which Christians were forced to hold outside their church.
A service of the persecuted community in Verkhni Stanivtsi. Photo: UOJ
Another fresh example from Bukovyna: On May 16, 2025, the day after the seizure in Krasyliv, a group of OCU activists stormed and seized the UOC Church in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the town of Zastavna, Chernivtsi region. At the same time, the clergy of the OCU took the most active part in the violent attack, wielding a crowbar, throwing people around, and breaking down doors. They were assisted by representatives of the local authorities. Leonid Holtsov, deputy head of the village, was spotted in the crowd. He also used his hands and pulled apart women who were defending their church.
The situation in the city of Cherkasy is especially indicative, for the mayor of the city, Anatoly Bondarenko, personally called on the town's people to participate in the seizure of the St. Michael's Cathedral and the Diocesan Administration of the UOC on October 17, 2024, and then himself participated in the lawlessness.
On that day, the main striking force of the state-sponsored OCU were radical ultra-nationalists, and the assault was accompanied by mass violence, shootings, and scuffles.
Several believers, including women and an elderly monk, were seriously injured. In addition to the cathedral, the administration of the Cherkasy Diocese of the UOC was seized and plundered, which, of course, cannot be explained by any transition to the OCU.
The same mayor, Bondarenko, led the seizure of the St. Andrew's Church of the UOC in Cherkasy on May 6 of this year, entered into disputes with believers and was booed by the people for his lawlessness.
The Cherkasy seizures, involving the mayor, have such resonance not only because of his open involvement and abuse of power, but especially because they are blatantly illegal even in Ukraine. The fact is that if in other situations the imitation of a community vote for the transition to the OCU are being considered legitimate in court, that can't work in Cherkasy, because both of these churches, not to mention the building and property of the Diocesan Administration, are in the direct private ownership of the Cherkasy Diocese itself, and not of any individual community as in those other cases.
The situation in Cherkasy is a violation not only of freedom of conscience and religion, not only of the law and order itself, but also against the very principle of the inviolability of private property. While the United States has the tools to protect itself and its citizens, the citizens of Ukraine are defenseless against this tyranny. And the most vulnerable and discriminated group of the Ukrainians today in the territories controlled by the Ukrainian government are the believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Today, their situation is only getting worse. On May 20, 2025, the barbaric Law № 3894-IX went into full force in Ukraine. The law has been criticized by the UN, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Anglican Church, the Vatican, and other organizations and human rights activists.
This repressive document, which was created by order of Zelensky himself and literally pushed through Parliament by intimidation and blackmail, is quite rightly called “the law banning the UOC”.
You may ask, but why not join the state church? Wouldn't that be easier?
This is absurd as if any American Christian would accept being forced to join another denomination.
As even many Greek hierarchs have noted, such as Metropolitan Nicephorus of Kykkos, the state-supported OCU is uncanonical. It is an illegitimate church. Out of the no less than 14 universally recognized autocephalous Orthodox Churches across the world, only two recognized the state church, and one of them helped to create it.
The rights of believers of the UOC are already under attack every day. As we said, in two regions of Ukraine, the UOC has been almost completely destroyed. All churches have been closed, and believers who gather for the liturgy in private houses and apartments are hunted and raided. Now, such a fate for the entire UOC may be a matter of time if we, the God-fearing and freedom-loving people of America, remain silent, if we remain indifferent and betray all those values for which we have fought for centuries, on which America stands, let us not betray Ukrainian Christians.
Let's say no to religious repression in Ukraine. No to the law that treats peaceful praying Christians like criminals. We must advocate for this law to be repealed and to ensure accountability while Ukraine is receiving military support and funding from the American people.
We will be forwarding the names and evidence of known Ukrainian government officials and others involved in illegal church seizures to the Trump administration, demanding immediate action. But we need your help. Share this video. Tag your elected representatives. Call them. Share it with your friends and help us to ensure a better future for Ukraine.
Thank you!
