The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being forced from its places of worship as Kiev accuses it of serving Russia A church in Odessa dedicated to the Russian Orthodox saint Aleksandr Nevsky has been seized by anti-Russian activists. The incident follows a pattern of government-backed crackdowns on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the country’s largest denomination. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Ukrainian authorities have carried out raids on monasteries and churches,