{"id":13979,"date":"2026-01-31T07:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T08:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/?p=13979"},"modified":"2026-02-07T03:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:24:30","slug":"us-congresswoman-demands-answers-from-kiev-over-church-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/31\/us-congresswoman-demands-answers-from-kiev-over-church-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"US congresswoman demands answers from Kiev over church crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anna Luna has sounded the alarm over the looming seizure of a parish in western Ukraine<\/strong><\/p>\n

A US congresswoman has demanded answers from Ukraine’s ambassador over ongoing attempts to seize a parish of Ukraine’s largest Orthodox denomination in the western part of the country and hand it over to a Kiev-backed schismatic church.<\/p>\n

In a post on X on Friday, Florida Republican Anna Luna said that despite her previous warnings, the Nativity church in Kuzmin in Khmelnitsky Region remains under pressure from a local “oligarch”<\/em> who she claims is “coercing residents to force an illegal seizure of the parish.”<\/em>
<\/em><\/p>\n

“I expect [Ukrainian ambassador to the US] Olga Stefanishina to explain herself to fellow members in my office this week,”<\/em> Luna wrote. The envoy has yet to comment on the request.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Union of Orthodox Journalists reported that the Kuzmin parish was re-registered to the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) using falsified paperwork, with parishioners fearing that seizure is imminent.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
No weapons for Kiev over church persecution \u2013 US congresswoman<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The dispute kicked off in late December when the Kuzmin diocese reported that local powerbrokers initiated a public gathering to discuss the transfer of the parish from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to the OCU. However, the diocese said the meeting – which it claimed was called to create the appearance of community support – was dominated by people specifically brought in from outside the village, making a potential handover illegal.<\/p>\n

The diocese said that to stave off the seizure, it would seek support from advocacy groups in the EU and US.<\/p>\n

A similar controversy erupted in Ukraine’s Kirovograd Region, where parishioners for the St. Great Martyr George the Victorious in Priutivka reported threats and attempted seizures by OCU-linked activists. Parishioners also sought support from US officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the country’s largest religious body by number of parishes and members. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, it has been subjected to a sweeping crackdown by Kiev, with Ukrainian officials accusing it of maintaining ties to Moscow, despite cutting all ties with the Russian Orthodox Church – which considers the OCU to be schismatic – in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna Luna has sounded the alarm over the looming seizure of a parish in western Ukraine A US congresswoman has demanded answers from Ukraine’s ambassador over ongoing attempts to seize a parish of Ukraine’s largest Orthodox denomination in the western part of the country and hand it over to a…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13983,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979\/revisions\/13983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}