Drabynko discusses services in monastery seized from UOC with authorities
Drabynko with the reserve’s leadership. Photo: Facebook page of the OCU’s Pereyaslav-Vyshneve Eparchy
On May 15, 2026, OCU "Metropolitan" Oleksandr (Drabynko) discussed with representatives of the Pereyaslav National Historical and Ethnographic Reserve the organization of OCU services in Pereyaslav’s St. Michael’s Monastery, seized from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) four days earlier. This was reported by the OCU’s Pereyaslav-Vyshneve Eparchy.
The meeting took place shortly after the events of May 11, when police officers and representatives of the reserve forcibly expelled the monastery’s abbot, Archimandrite Antony, and the brethren.
The basis for the forced transfer of the monastery was a 2023 ruling by the Commercial Court of Appeal ordering the UOC to vacate the building in favor of the reserve. During the operation, law enforcement officers used physical force against believers who were trying to defend the monastery. Museum staff, backed by special forces, carried out an inventory, including in the monks’ private cells.
At the meeting, Drabynko stressed that it was he who had consecrated St. Michael’s Church in 2011, while he was still not under suspension in the UOC.
As the UOJ reported, police seized the UOC’s St. Michael’s Monastery in Pereyaslav. The first attempt to take over the monastery was made back in June 2023, but at that time the faithful managed to defend it. In November 2025, the Pereyaslav City Council decided to “remove obstacles” to the reserve’s work, effectively sanctioning the forced eviction of the monks. St. Michael’s Monastery is an architectural monument of the 18th–19th centuries, built in 1743–1750.
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