OCU covers saints’ frescoes with Ukrainian flags in seized Odesa church
Supporters of the OCU have held their first service in a church seized from the UOC in Odesa.
On June 28, 2026, representatives of the OCU conducted their first “liturgy” in the seized St. Alexander Nevsky Church at the Odesa Military Hospital. The Odesa Eparchy of the OCU reported this on Facebook. Photographs attached to the post show wall frescoes depicting saints covered with Ukrainian national flags.
The Ukrainian-language service was led by Archpriest Theodor Orobets, secretary of the Odesa Eparchy of the OCU, concelebrating with the church’s new “rector,” Viktor Bondar, and military chaplains. Earlier, Orobets had publicly criticized frescoes depicting the Royal Martyrs, St. Andrew Bogolyubsky, and St. Dmitry Donskoy, claiming that there was allegedly “not a single one of our own” among the images in the church.
The Odesa Eparchy of the OCU had previously confirmed plans to remove the existing frescoes entirely and replace them in accordance with what it described as “the demands of contemporary Ukrainian reality.” The icons of the saints were characterized by the church’s new occupants as “markers of Moscow religious life.”
Veneration of Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, to whom the hospital church was originally dedicated, had earlier been declared “unacceptable” by representatives of the OCU. Judging by the latest Facebook post, the seized church has now been renamed in honor of St. Agapitus of the Caves.
As the UOJ reported, clergy of the UOC appealed to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration following the seizure of the church.
