MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Schismatics of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) are trying to seize control of a church of the canonical UOC located in the Rovnensky Region in western Ukraine, the Rovensky diocese reported on Wednesday.

"At the moment, the Nikolayevskaya Church in the settlement of Gilcha is being seized. The OCU raiders have already cut locks from the doors [of the UOC church]. The confrontation continues," the clergymen said on their Telegram channel.

Tensions over the UOC, which the Ukrainian authorities are trying to shut out, are heating up every day. Under Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the government has prepared and introduced to the parliament a bill aimed at banning the UOC. At the same time, the authorities actively promote the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine, created from two non-canonical churches in 2018 under Pyotr Poroshenko, who was Ukraine’s president at the time.

The Kiev regime supports the policy of driving the UOC out. Over the past year, UOC priests have been accused of high treason or sanctioned while the takeover of churches by schismatics has intensified. In March, the UOC’s lease at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra was terminated while its monks were told to leave the premises. UOC clergymen are charged with state treason, sanctions are introduced against them, and 13 of them were stripped of their citizenship.