Ukrainian Catholic leader: Church takeover is ‘blasphemy’
A Catholic church in occupied Ukraine was taken over by Russian Orthodox clergy on Easter Sunday.
The reported takeover of a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church by Russian Orthodox clergy on Easter Sunday was an act of “blasphemy,” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk has said.
The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church made the comment after Russian Orthodox clergy conducted a liturgy at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Tokmak, south-central Ukraine, on April 12, the day Eastern Christians celebrated Easter.
“This is blasphemy against the Risen Lord — the Prince of Peace! And on the feast of Easter, no less,” Shevchuk said April 16.
Russian forces have occupied Tokmak, a town of around 30,000 people, since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian authorities claim to uphold religious freedom in occupied territories, but the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church says its members, including clergy, have suffered arrests, torture, and deportation.
Human rights groups have accused the occupation authorities of using the Russian Orthodox Church to supplant Christian communities that are not aligned with the Russian state.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome, with around 4 million members in Ukraine, mainly located in the west of the country.
Shevchuk also addressed the incident in Tokmak in his weekly video message to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community, released April 19.
He said: “With cynical deliberation, our church was seized on Easter; our faithful were expelled — people who, even without the opportunity to participate in services because they have no priest of their own, had cared for, cleaned, and visited this church.”
“They were expelled, and the church was taken over by clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and paramilitary units.”
Tokmak falls under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Exarchate of Donetsk, which covers the largely Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Luhansk.
The exarchate served around 69,000 Catholics, with 45 priests and 63 parishes, in 2015. But the figures are likely to have fallen considerably since the full-scale war began.
In an April 16 statement, the exarchate accused Russian Orthodox clergy of “arbitrarily seizing” the Tokmak church and “forbidding local believers to pray there.”
It praised the bravery of a laywoman called Svitlana Loy, who, it said, defied threats and intimidation to pray at the church, as well as to clean it.
“Particularly outrageous is the ban on local parishioners from attending their own church, while outsiders blatantly pose as ‘parishioners,’” the exarchate said.
“This once again confirms the systematic and deliberate nature of religious persecution in the occupied territories, where the right to freedom of conscience and religion is being grossly violated.”
“Such actions testify not only to contempt for human dignity, but also to a systemic policy of ousting the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from the Russian-occupied territories.”
In contrast, media aligned with the Russian Orthodox Church accused Ukrainian Greek Catholic leaders of “double standards” for highlighting the seizure of the Tokmak church, but allegedly downplaying the occupation of a Moscow Patriarchate-aligned church in Kolomyya, western Ukraine, in 2017.
Pro-Russian groups have described the Tokmak church as being “abandoned” by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and portrayed the Russian Orthodox use of the church at Easter as providential.
The Tokmak incident took place after an international group of scholars and Church leaders issued an appeal for an end to religious persecution in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
The text, issued during a March 27-28 conference at The Catholic University of America, argued that the Russian occupation was having a “devastating effect on religious freedom.”
It said: “As of the end of 2025, 737 places of worship have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine by Russian aggression. 67 clergy members across denominations have been killed.”
In November 2022, the occupation authorities arrested the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Redemptorist priests Fr. Bohdan Geleta and Fr. Ivan Levytskyi in Berdiansk, southeastern Ukraine.
Following their release in June 2024, they underwent physical and psychological rehabilitation after experiencing significant trauma during their detention.
In his April 19 Regina Caeli address in Kilamba, Angola, Pope Leo XIV highlighted the Ukrainian population’s continued suffering.
He said: “I am deeply saddened by the recent escalation of attacks against Ukraine, which continue to afflict civilians as well. I express my solidarity with those who are suffering and assure all the Ukrainian people of my prayers.”
“I renew my call for weapons to fall silent and for the path of dialogue to be pursued.”