Department for External Church Relations
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Ukrainian police storm Kremenets Theological School and evict female students
On the 30th of November 2023, in the city of Kremenets (Ternopol region of Ukraine), the police cordoned off the St. Nicholas Cathedral, which houses the Regents' School. Three buses arrived with representatives of law enforcement agencies.
The incident happened at 6 a.m., the Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reported with reference to the press service of the Ternopil diocese. The police officers demanded that the students leave the premises immediately. The police burst right into the cells where the girls were sleeping at the time, forced them to pack their belongings and immediately go outside. Some girls locked themselves in their cells. The police responded by threatening to break down the doors.
Buses were brought to the St. Nicholas Cathedral, in which female students of the Kremenets Theological School were forcibly put in order, as it was stated, to take them "to the dormitory of one of the colleges". The vast majority of the girls are in a state of shock. The police did not provide any explanation as to why the students were taken to the bus. Later it became known that the girls were safe: the students were temporarily taken in by the Kremenets Convent, fed and warmed.
According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, police also cut the locks on the St Nicholas Cathedral.
Commenting on the forceful actions against the St. Nicholas religious community and the regent's school in Kremenets, Vasyl Ilchyshyn, director of the Kremenets-Pochayiv State Historical and Architectural Reserve, characterized the incident as "the return of state property", the Raskolam.net website reports.
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