Viktoria Kokhanovska
Born in 1984.
Places of residence: Kyiv, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi region
A lawyer, human-rights defender, public activist, head of the civic organizations Women’s Power of Ukraine and the All-Ukrainian Sisterhood of St. Mary Magdalene Equal-to-the-Apostles.
Take a close look at these recordings:
They are deeply disturbing.
On April 19, 2023, an event took place in Kyiv – something for which, in democratic countries, chiefs of police, ministers of internal affairs and heads of security services resign, and governments suffer reputational damage that cannot be washed away.
At around 9 p.m., in the center of the capital, in full view of hundreds of people, human-rights defender and blogger Viktoria Kokhanovska, who defended the right of UOC believers to remain in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, was abducted by a group of unidentified men in plain clothes.
She screamed and resisted until she lost consciousness, after which her body was dragged across the asphalt like an animal carcass. Viktoria was forcibly shoved into a police vehicle and taken away to an unknown location.
At that moment she was livestreaming on Facebook (the stream has since been deleted), and the stream continued for several minutes inside the vehicle, capturing the conversations of the abductors – who turned out to be officers of Ukrainian security services.
None of them identified themselves. No one told her a single word, no one instructed her to follow them, read her rights, or explained the grounds for the arrest. She was simply overpowered, thrown into a car, and kidnapped.
During the ride, they spoke among themselves.
This is what the abductors said in the car:
“She (Kokhanovska) started kicking like a horse, so I pulled her. She sort of fainted. Stuffed her into the car, f***, and now we’re driving.”
It all happened so quickly and behind the backs of the police cordon that the UOC faithful – dozens of whom were still gathered – did not even have time to react. Only one or two women understood what was going on, but the abductors simply shoved them aside.
Later, Viktoria’s friends tried to find her. They stopped and searched a passing police car – but it was the wrong one. Everyone who saw the livestream was shocked and outraged.
Case study UOC
Only a couple dozen anti-UOC radicals – hired demonstrators and ideological extremists – jumped and cheered, delighted that the authorities used pointless brute force against a woman and their ideological opponent.
A bit later it became known that she had been taken to the Pechersk Police Department in Kyiv. Her phone was confiscated, and she was held almost the entire night before being charged with… “hooliganism” (Article 296, Part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Have you ever seen women – public figures, human-rights activists, bloggers – peacefully standing at a prayer vigil, being abducted from the street by security forces in civilian clothes for alleged “hooliganism”? Clearly nothing of the sort was happening at that moment.
How is this possible? Legally, of course, it is impossible. But once the authorities publicly declared their goal of expelling the UOC from the Lavra and making its presence in Ukraine untenable, anyone standing in the way was placed outside the law.
Viktoria was one of those people. Since the summer of 2022, as a lawyer and civic activist, she began to speak publicly about the blatant injustice against the UOC. She herself had once participated in Euromaidan protests against Yanukovych.
She visited communities where UOC churches were being seized, provided legal aid, and helped believers organize for lawful defense of their rights.
She tried to reach the authorities through legal means, recording an appeal to the First Lady, Olena Zelenska – a video that was viewed over a million times:
She held prayer vigils outside government buildings to draw attention to the issue of church raiding in the Kyiv region:
She was expressive, passionate, loud and courageous – unafraid to confront police officers carrying out unlawful orders. A genuine street defender of rights – and the critical situation demanded such resolve.
In 2012–2014, the Western world praised Ukrainians like her on Maidan, called them freedom fighters and celebrated them. In 2022, the world fell silent when one brave woman challenged the system – and the system trampled her.
Viktoria significantly hindered the authorities’ efforts to seize control of the Lavra and unlawfully expel the UOC monks and the Kyiv Metropolia’s administrative structures.
The formal pretext for her detention – the basis of the so-called “hooliganism case” – was that on that day the employees of the state-run Reserve, assisted by the police, began breaking doors in one of the Lavra buildings belonging to the UOC and installing their own locks.
Without a court decision.
Believers tried to stop this lawlessness, including Viktoria – the most active among them. Their only tool was peaceful civil resistance, a human shield.
(Source: The First Cossack 1, 2, 3,)
The believers succeeded in peacefully reclaiming the building, and the security forces retreated. Viktoria was injured and received medical help.
During the confrontation, metal-plastic shutters on the windows were damaged – shutters that belonged to the UOC, not the Reserve or the State.
Yet it was the damage to these inexpensive shutters – the alleged “material loss” – and the believers’ peaceful resistance to unlawful police actions that authorities blamed on Viktoria and three other activists, opening a “hooliganism” case against them.
At the time of the alleged “hooliganism,” no one was detained – because the actions of the police and the Reserve were themselves illegal. Lavra lawyer Nikita Chekman even filed a police report against them.
Only later did the authorities decide to use the incident as a pretext to neutralize Viktoria. They fabricated a case and abducted her from the street.
Even if, in their view, Viktoria had done something illegal, nothing justifies kidnapping and assault.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s law enforcement almost never detains those who violently seize UOC churches, beat believers, or openly incite hatred.
On the same day, three other Lavra defenders were also detained for the same supposed “hooliganism” and “damage to shutters.” Their arrest was also illegal, but lacked the same brutality and scandal.
This group of activists would later be jokingly called the “Lavra hooligans” by grateful believers.
From that point on, everything followed a familiar pattern – excessive preventive measures, biased court rulings, unlawful delays in proceedings, pressure, and intimidation.
New, ever more severe criminal charges were fabricated against Viktoria as well.
On April 21, 2023, Viktoria was issued a suspicion of “inciting hatred” for criticizing crimes committed by the OCU. This was done directly in the detention center, without her lawyers present.
Later it turned out that the “victim of hatred” in this case was Oleksandr Zarubin, the mayor of Boyarka, who had actively participated in the seizure of the local UOC church and openly vowed to “transfer all six UOC churches” in the city to the OCU. Viktoria had interfered with his unlawful actions. According to him, the human-rights defender “offended his religious feelings.”
That same day, the Pechersk Court in Kyiv imposed 24-hour house arrest with an electronic bracelet for two months under the “hooliganism” article.
🔴On April 24, 2023, the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn Court repeated the same measure under the “incitement of hatred” article.
🔴 On June 15, 2023, the measure was extended for another two months.
🔴On June 29, 2023, the Court of Appeal changed the measure to nighttime house arrest and removed the electronic bracelet.
🔴That same day, when Kokhanovska went to the Lavra, she was attacked and sprayed with tear gas by a radical regularly involved in anti-church actions under the Lavra.
The attack was caught on camera, but the police reacted lethargically. An Orthodox bystander had to restrain the attacker.
Meanwhile, the attacker’s accomplice was filming the incident. In the end, the police pretended to detain him, but in reality, after placing him in a patrol car, they let him go around the nearest corner.
Later he was seen again at anti-UOC rallies. He never faced punishment – a clear illustration of selective law enforcement. When the violence is real, yet directed against people treated as second-class citizens – UOC believers – and when it is carried out by “their own,” there is no need to worry about accountability.
Viktoria eventually suffered a chemical burn to her eyes, struggled to regain her vision, and still experiences problems.
Police refused to open a criminal case against the attacker, claiming “no criminal elements.”
🔴Instead, they punished Viktoria. On June 30, the Pechersk Court again placed her under 24-hour house arrest with an electronic bracelet, alleging she had “violated the conditions of the preventive measure.” The absurdity of this decision speaks for itself.
🔴On August 15, 2023, the SBU conducted another search at her apartment while she was under 24-hour house arrest. She was issued a new suspicion of “justifying Russian aggression” (Article 436-2) – based, traditionally, on phrases ripped out of context.
This became the third criminal case against the human-rights defender. The SBU threatened her with imprisonment.
(Source: Official website of the SBU)
🔴On October 4, 2023, the court eased the preventive measure in the “hooliganism” case from 24-hour house arrest to nighttime house arrest. The same was done for the other three “Lavra hooligans.”
🔴On November 17, 2023, the Pechersk District Court further eased the preventive measure for Viktoria and the others, keeping nighttime house arrest but removing the electronic bracelet. One defendant (Zabroda) was released under personal obligation. Viktoria stated that the court had returned the indictment to the prosecution for the second time “due to inconsistencies.”
🔴On October 12, 2024, the Kyiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office transferred to court the indictment against the Orthodox human-rights defender in the “justification and denial of Russian aggression” case.
🔴 On December 23, 2024, the SBU conducted yet another search and charged Kokhanovska with “inciting hatred.” This was already the fourth criminal case against her.
Viktoria said the new case was opened because previous cases were “falling apart, and they need to create new problems for me.” She said it was based on a repost of a post written by a priest’s wife.
🔴On March 5, 2025, it became known that a witness for the SBU in the case against Viktoria was B. Orishchenko, known as “Mag Veliar,” an occult practitioner who had previously harassed UOC believers at the Lavra, disrupted services, and agitated for the OCU.
Orishchenko calls himself “Mage Belial,” “author of magical books and cards, a demonologist, a tantrist,” and posts occult videos on social media.
🔴 Punitive measures taken against Viktoria Kokhanovska:
🔴 Violent and unlawful abduction on a Kyiv street on April 19, 2023.
🔴Detention in a pre-trial facility the following day.
🔴 April 21, 2023 – June 29, 2023: 24-hour house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet.
🔴 On June 29, 2023, the Court of Appeal modified the preventive measure to night-time house arrest and lifted the requirement to wear the electronic bracelet.
🔴That same day, June 29, 2023, she was attacked with tear gas by an anti-church radical whose actions under the Lavra were being coordinated by the authorities. He was released the same day and faced no punishment whatsoever.
🔴June 20, 2023 – October 4, 2023: night-time house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet.
🔴Since November 17, 2023, she has remained under night-time house arrest without the requirement to wear an electronic bracelet.
Her apartment has been searched by SBU officers at least twice.
🔴 Current status:
She remains under night-time house arrest without the obligation to wear an electronic bracelet. Criminal proceedings in four separate cases – including the “hooliganism” charge – are ongoing.
The other three defenders of the Lavra, the so-called “Lavra hooligans,” who were arrested together with Viktoria Kokhanovska on April 19, 2023 over the same alleged episode of “scuffles” and “damaged window shutters / roll-down blinds”:
•R. Zabroda
• P. Olofinskyi
• Yu. Oleinik
All of them, together with Viktoria, are charged with committing a criminal offense under Part 3, Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Case No. 757/37357/23-k, Pechersk District Court of Kyiv.
Indictment dated August 14, 2023 in criminal proceedings No. 12023100060000696 of April 19, 2023.
In the photo below is Pavlo Olofinskyi, a young man nicknamed Pasha Marshrutka, who also stood in prayer under the Lavra and joined the protests against the eviction of the UOC.
At present, he is being held in custody in the Dnipro pre-trial detention center (SIZO).
The first UOC priest officially killed on the frontline as a result of the unlawful mobilization.
Archimandrite, abbot of the Monastery of All Saints of the Carpathian Rus of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
The court imposed a preventive measure on Fr. Feognost in the form of night-time house arrest.