VIDEO ⟩ In Ukraine, a dispute over one of the country’s largest cathedrals leads to fighting

The fight began at St. Michael’s Cathedral, one of the largest in the country and run by a cleric loyal to the Moscow-backed church.

The media reports that a Ukrainian military cleric entered the cathedral today, announcing in a video that the cathedral would return to the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, saying it would be a the fortress church.

The cleric in camouflage, along with other men in uniform, announced the creation of a “nationalist educational center” on the grounds of the cathedral. “All parishioners who have been and are still members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) are invited to services in the Ukrainian fortress church,” he said.

Members of the congregation, who see themselves as belonging to the Moscow branch of the church, banned themselves from the church and announced that they would not give up their cathedral. Fighting then broke out in the cathedral, which ended when the clergy of the Moscow-backed church were taken out of the cathedral and a service led by priests of the Ukrainian Church or – dependent

Local media in Cherkassy quoted a medic who said 14 people were injured in the fight, 12 of whom were taken to medical facilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this summer signed a law banning religious organizations linked to Russia, known as the Moscow Church Women.