“Raiders vs. the UOC: A Battle Over a 19th-Century Church Erupts in the Ukrainian Village of Moshny.”

In Ukraine, the process of church raiding continues: fighters of the OCU are seizing the churches of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On November 16, representatives of the OCU announced that they had taken control of the Transfiguration Church of the UOC in the village of Moshny, Cherkasy region.

They openly boasted that they had taken possession of a church built back in the Russian Empire by Count Vorontsov himself. According to video recordings, the “transition” unfolded in a familiar OCU format: masked men with yellow armbands stood at the entrance, while inside, activists shouted slogans instead of prayers.

The rector of the Transfiguration Cathedral, Archpriest Oleh Markhylevych, was forced to sign the transfer of the church to the OCU under threats. He had no choice but to sign, and the activists decided that this automatically transferred ownership of the church to them.

Lawyers explain that such a “deal” has no legal force: the church is a monument of national heritage and is on the state balance sheet. Moreover, the UOC has an active custody agreement dating back to the 1990s, which cannot be annulled by the rector’s signature. The OCU ignored all of this.

The raiders filmed the seizure and everything happening inside the church. After signing the “document,” a group of fighters went out onto the porch and shouted: “At last, the Transfiguration Church built by Count Vorontsov is ours!”

The Transfiguration Church in Moshny was built in 1839 by architect Georgiy Torricelli and consecrated by Metropolitan Philaret of Kyiv on August 19, 1840. The cathedral is a monument of national importance and remains on the state balance sheet. The valid custody agreement with the UOC community, concluded in the 1990s, was never terminated — it was simply ignored.

There is an opinion that fighters were brought in from Cherkasy specifically for the operation to seize the Transfiguration Church. This version appears plausible, considering that even local authorities admit that only six people in the village declared themselves members of the OCU.

Such seizures enjoy political support. It is known that in 2024, the mayor of Cherkasy, Anatolii Bondarenko, publicly approved the takeover of the largest UOC cathedral in the region — the Archangel Michael Church.

However, on November 24, 2025, it became clear that even administrative support is not always enough to force UOC communities to switch to the OCU. After the scandalous seizure in Moshny, the raiders left, and the head of the Moshny community, Bohdan Shkarbuta, arrived at the church and changed the locks, blocking unauthorized use of the building by OCU supporters.

The struggle over the church is clearly far from over.