The pro-Russian segment of the Internet is spreading information that the head doctor of a medical institution in Cherkasy refused to provide medical assistance to parishioners of the UOC MP. This allegedly happened after a scuffle between representatives of the OCU and believers of the UOC MP near the Cherkasy St. Michael's Cathedral due to the fact that some parishioners were unhappy with the decision of chaplain Volodymyr Pedko to transfer the church to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The propagandists write that as a result of the clash, about 20 people with serious injuries sought hospital treatment, but the head doctor Oleksandr Fedoruk forbade documenting the injuries of some of the victims, providing them with first aid, and hospitalizing them. So this is allegedly “evidence of religious intolerance” towards Orthodox believers in Ukraine.

In fact, this information is false, StopFake journalists report.

The Third Cherkasy City Hospital of Emergency Medical Care published a refutation of this news on its Facebook page: “On October 17, 2024, 10 people who were injured during these events turned to the Third Cherkasy City Hospital of Emergency Medical Care. Six were provided with outpatient care, two were hospitalized in the traumatology department, two in the neurosurgery department. All who sought help received it in full. The information about the refusal to provide assistance is false and discredits our establishment”.

Soon after the incident occurred, law enforcement agencies began investigating it: the regional national police opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - hooliganism. The maximum punishment that can be threatened under the sanction of the article is imprisonment for a term of two to five years.

The religious community of Cherkasy voted and made a decision to transfer the church to the subordination of the OCU back in June 2024, and on October 17, the process was finalized. The corresponding order was issued and signed by the Cherkasy Regional Military Administration. As a result, the UOC community is no longer registered at this address and has also lost its property rights. “The Russian Orthodox Church has occupied the territory of St. Michael's Cathedral and hypocritically calls itself the Ukrainian Church, so today we did it. We must liberate all of Ukraine from the Russian occupation and the spiritual Russian occupation”, said military chaplain Father Nazarii in a commentary to Cherkasy Suspilne (Public) about the transfer of the church to the subordination of the OCU.

This fake is intended to feed the Russian narrative that Ukraine is allegedly persecuting people on religious grounds. We previously recorded disinformation that an OCU priest refused to perform the funeral service for Ukrainian defenders baptized in the UOC MP.