In 1927, his wife was accused of communist sympathies and arrested by the Polish authorities. Accused of supporting her and, as a result, removed from the parish. Sent for a year to the monastery in Mali Zahaitsi in the Volyn Eparchy, then in the Polish Ternopil Voivodeship. After a year, returned, but the marriage fell apart.

At the time of the German and Russian attack on Poland in 09.1939 and the outbreak of World War II, was in his home village. Defeat in the fight against the two totalitarian states of isolated Poland meant that — as a result of the friendly agreements between the two invaders, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact — found himself in German–occupied territory, while his last parish in Russian‐occupied territory. Never returned there.

settled in Sumin, a small village, c. 2.5 km from his native Tarnawatka, inhabited by c. 100 people, mostly Orthodox Ukrainians. The village found itself in the Germ. Landkreis Zamość (Eng. Zamość County) within the Germ. Distrikt Lublin (Eng. Lublin District), which was part of the quasi‐state occupied and administered by the Germans, called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. The Germ. SS‐ und Polizeiführer (Eng. SS and Police Commander) in the Germ. Distrikt Lublin, and de facto deputy governor of this district, was one of the greatest criminals in human history, the Austrian, Odilo Lotario Globočnik, whom one historian described as „the most vile individual in the most vile organization that has ever existed”. The Germans immediately introduced terror against the Polish population. Restored the policy of Ukrainization, which had its origins in 1918, at the end of World War I, when on 09.02.1918, the occupying Central Powers (the German Empire and the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy) concluded the Treaty of Brest‐Litovsk with the fledgling, seasonal Ukrainian state, with its capital in Kiev, in which they granted Polish lands to Ukraine by the law of by the law of caducus, i.e. „with disregard for the rights”, while bypassing the Poles (as a result, the Ukrainian delegation at the peace conference in Versailles in 1919, after the defeat of the Central Powers, laid claim to the Zamość region). It was expressed i.a. in wrestling schools from Polish hands and handing them over to Ukrainians, as well as evicting Catholic priests out of parishes and turning churches into Orthodox ones.

Sources do not specify his fate during the first three years of the German occupation. This was a period marked primarily by criminal repressions against the Polish population, and starting in 1941 — especially after the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians — by the genocide of the Jews. From 03.1942, in the village of Bełżec, c. 20 km south of Tarnawatki, the German extermination camp VL Belzec began its genocidal operations, and in 05.1942, in Sobibór, c. 100 km to the north, the extermination camp VL Sobibór. In both of them, the Germans murdered i.a. Jews from the Germ. Distrikt Lublin. In carrying out the genocide, the Germans were assisted by gendarmerie units, Germ. Sonderdienst (Eng. Special Service), i.e. the auxiliary police of the governor of the GG, and the trainees brought from the German SS‐Ausbildungslager (Eng. SS training camp) in Trawniki. In all these units, a large part, if not the majority, were Ukrainians. The fourth unit helping the Germans in the deportations of Jews to VL Sobibor was the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service). There were no Jews in Sumin, and in Tarnawatka perhaps a dozen or so, but the proximity of Tomaszów Lubelski, c. 10 km from Sumin, where the Germans established a ghetto in which c. 2,000 Jews were kept, and VL Belzec, where the Jews of Tomaszów were murdered in 1942, must have marked his life at that time.

Ministered prob. in private homes and helped in Tarnawatka. The fate of the local church was similar to many parishes in this region of Poland. Historically, it belonged to the Slavic‐Byzantine Catholic Church, also known as the Uniate Church. After the fall of the January Uprising of 1863‐1864, the tsarist Russian authorities, however, outlawed the Uniate Church in 1875, forcibly incorporating the faithful into Orthodoxy. The churches were converted into Orthodox ones. However, Orthodox priests and a large part of the parishioners fled Tarnawatka in 1915, during World War I, after the Russian defeat in the Battle of Gorlice by the armies of the Central Powers, as part of the so‐called bezhenstvo, i.e. the panicked escape of c. 3 million members of the Russian partitioning administration on Polish territory — officials, Orthodox clergy, military personnel, teachers, etc., along with their families — into the depths of Russia. Most of them never returned. In 1919, the empty and decaying church was taken over by the Roman Catholic Church. According to sources, after the beginning of the German occupation in 1939, the Germans handed this church over to the Orthodox, but it was to be „shared by Orthodox and Catholics”.

The end of the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» in the Zamość region did not mean the end of the ordeal of the local Polish civilian population. On the contrary, it coincided with the beginning of the Germ. Aktion Zamość (Eng. Operation Zamość), i.e. the German displacement and pacification action, which was part of the broader Germ. Generalplan Ost (Eng. General Plan Eastern), the German settlement and Germanization plan for the territories of Central and Eastern Europe. The Germ. Aktion Zamość was led by the aforementioned genocide perpetrator, SS‐Gruppenführer Odilo Globočnik. Within its framework, the Germans displaced 100,000‐110,000 Poles, including 30,000 children, intending to settle 60,000 German colonists in their place. The displaced were taken to concentration camps, where many were murdered. Some of the children — the „racially purest” — were literally robbed and given to German families.

It is not clear whether was still in Sumin at that time. In particular, it is not clear whether was still living there at the end of 12.1942, when Polish partisans — soldiers of the independence resistance Home Army AK and the Peasant Battalions BCh (part of the Polish Clandestine State) — began an armed struggle against the Germans in defense of displaced Poles, which went down in history as the Zamość Uprising. On 26.01.1943, BCh soldiers attacked a farm in Tarnawatka, requisitioning cattle and pigs. During the retreat, encountered a unit of German gendarmes near Sumin. During the skirmish, shots were fired in the direction of the fighters from Sumin. It is not known who fired the shots and whether had a German weapons permit, but in retaliation on 29.01.1943, Germans pacified Sumin. Murdered c. 50 people, including women and small children. Most of the victims were Orthodox, but among them were also seven Poles. The village was set alight.

A few days later, on 01.02.1943, AK units defeated the Germans in the largest battle of the Zamość Uprising, near Zaboreczno, c. 7 km west of Sumin. As a result, the Germans stopped the deportation action for six months.

And prob. then began his ministry in two villages — Chyżowice and Zamch, respectively — inhabited by an Orthodox majority. Both communities shared the fate of the area, and the history of the local churches resembled that of the church in Tarnawatka — from the Catholic Uniate Church, through forced conversion to Orthodoxy, the bezhenstvo in 1915, and the takeover by the Catholic Church in 1919, after Poland regained independence. In both cases, in 1943, the Germans robbed the churches and handed them over to the Orthodox. These were not just ordinary acts of repression against the Polish community — they were part of the Germ. Ukraineraktion (Eng. Ukrainian Operation), part of the temporarily suspended Germ. Aktion Zamość, i.e. the creation of a „protective belt” for German colonists from a number of villages, settled by Orthodox Ukrainians, against Polish partisans.

The pacification of Sumin coincided with another event taking place several hundred kilometers to the east, somewhere in Volyn, which was part of the German‐occupied territory adjacent to the GG and the Germ. Distrikt Lublin, called Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat of Ukraine) — i.e. in the area of its former Volyn eparchy. Namely, in 02.1943, Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, issued an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.

It was the de facto signal for the commencement of the «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”.

Immediately thereafter, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, collaborating with Germans, in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, which co‐participated in the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage», to desert and join the UPA. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

The tactics of the genocidal Ukrainians were detailed in an order issued by the UPA commander in Volyn — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, in 06.1943 explained and ordered: „We should carry out a major operation to eliminate the Polish element. When the German troops withdraw, we should use this opportune moment to eliminate the entire male population aged 16 to 60 […] We cannot lose this fight, and we must weaken Polish forces at all costs. Forest villages and villages located near forest massifs should disappear from the face of the earth”.

In the first half and summer of 1943, the OUN/UPA carried out hundreds of genocidal attacks on Polish villages and hamlets in Volyn, murdering tens of thousands of Poles with unprecedented cruelty. At the end of 1943, it decided to expand the mass genocidal action to the German–occupied Germ. Distrikt Lublin, the Zamość region, and the Chełm region. At the turn of 1943/1944, genocidal UPA units began to infiltrate there — on the other side of the Bug River from Volyn.

And it was prob. then moved to the vicinity of Tyszowiec, to the small village of Czartowiec, c. 20 km east of his native Tarnawatka. In 1939, an estimated 650 people lived there, including c. 75% Poles, Roman Catholics, and c. 20% Orthodox. The area was equally divided. In the village of Czartowczyk, c. 3 km to the west, c. 600 people lived, 100% Poles. Similarly, in the colony that was established after Poland regained independence around Czartowiec, where c. 230 people resided. But in Muratyn, c. 3.5 km east of Czartowiec, in 1939, there were also c. 900 people, but about 80% Orthodox.

In Czartowiec, there was a church that went through a similar fate to the aforementioned in the 19th and 20th centuries: from a Catholic Uniate church, through forced conversion to Orthodoxy in 1875, the bezhenstvo in 1915, and the takeover of the abandoned church by the Catholic Church in 1919. A similar situation arose in Muratyn, except that the church there was not taken over by the Catholic Church in 1919 and was unused and falling into disrepair. On 27.06.1938, it was forcibly demolished by the Polish authorities as part of the so‐called Polonization and Restitution Operation, the goals of which were described by one of its leaders as follows: „The point is for the Orthodox Church […] to be a tool of Polonization, not Russification, at our Polish expense”. After the German occupation began in 1939, an Orthodox house of prayer began operating in Muratyn.

Began his ministry in an area strongly marked by the occupation. The parish priest of the Catholic parish in Czartowiec, Fr Joseph Czemerajda, was arrested by the Russians in 1939 and then murdered in Kharkiv, becoming one of the victims of the so‐called «Katyn genocide 1940». In 1942, the Germans, with the participation of the Germ. Hilfswillige unit (Eng. auxiliary unit), the so‐called Hivis, i.e. former Red Army prisoners of war who had defected to the German side (Ukrainians serving in them had the right to bear arms), and members of the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, exterminated Jews from the Tyszowce ghetto as part of the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage». On 12.07.1943, as part of the second phase of the Germ. Aktion Zamość, the Germans evicted the village of Czartowczyk, resettling it with Germans brought from Romania and Yugoslavia. At the same time, the Catholic rectory in Czartowiec and its outbuildings burned down.

Himself — it is unclear when and where — was allegedly the victim of several robberies.

Was able to began his ministry in Czartowiec because the Germans had just then robbed the local Roman Catholic church and handed it over to the Orthodox Church. Prob. as part of the Germ. Ukraineraktion, i.e. creating the aforementioned „protective belt” around German colonists, directed against Poles, and with the help of Ukrainians.

When, at the end of 1943, Ukrainian units of the genocidal OUN/UPA began to penetrate the German District of Lublin, the Germans basically did not react, focusing almost exclusively on fighting the Polish partisan forces of the resistance AK and BCh. This was mainly due to the situation on the German–Russian front in the east, that was forcing the Germans to throw all available forces to defend the German positions — on 24.12.1943, a large Russian offensive, today known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation, began, and the front began to rapidly approach central Volyn, Rivne, and Lutsk. Moreover, Germans left internal control over the occupied territories almost exclusively to collaborationist formations, retaining only general supervisory functions for themselves. In the Germ. Landkreis Zamość, as well as in other parts of the Germ. Distrikt Lublin, this meant that the only uniformed formations engaged in maintaining internal order were de facto units consisting of Ukrainian collaborators. These were the Germ. Gendarmerie, Schuma, as well as the Germ. Galizisches SS Freiwilligen Regiment 5 – Polizei (Eng. 5th Galician Volunteer Regiment of the SS – police), i.e. SS‐GFR5P — units of the German Die Schutzstaffel der NSDAP (Eng. NSDAP Protection Squad), i.e. «SS», a paramilitary formation subordinate to the ruling National Socialist German Workers' Party NSDAP in Germany. In the area were also recruitment centers of Germ. Ersatz/Ausbildungseinheiten (Eng. replacement/training units) for the combat formations, being created, i.e. Germ. 14. Waffen–Grenadier–Division der SS – ukrainische Nr. 1 (Eng 14. Grenadier Division of the Waffen SS – 1. Ukrainian), known as «SS‐Galizien».

Additionally, since the UPA did not formally operate in the GG until the end of 1943 — so as not to irritate the Germans — in rural centers the euphemistically called Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. self‐defense unit) were formed, de facto branches of the UPA, preparing to implement the orders of „Taras Chuprynka” Shukhevych and implement «Genocidium Atrox» in the GG, including the Zamość region. Shelters were built, weapons were stockpiled, and trenches were dug. All these Ukrainian armed formations intertwined, remaining under the increasing ideological and practical control of the genocidal OUN/UPA — and in the spring In 1944, they in fact deserted to the genocidal UPA.

The resistance Polish Clandestine State was observing the situation. In the Germ. Landkreis Zamość, traumatized Polish refugees began to appear, telling details of the «Genocidium Atrox» in Volyn, the unprecedented barbarity of the UPA and Ukrainians. The penetration of the UPA genocidal agents across the Bug River was being observed. And so, at the end of 02.1944, the Bug River was crossed by a UPA gang, commanded by the genocidal agent Miroslav Onyshkevych, nom de guerre „Orest”, then the so‐called „Chief of Staff” of Military District WO‐4 „Bug”, part of the OUN/UPA „UPA‐West” operational group formed in 12.1943, which carried out the massacre of the Polish villages of Tarnoszyn, Posadów and Podlodów, located in the Germ. Landkreis Zamość, neighboring the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów (Eng. Hrubieszów county) — Posadów is located barely 14 km from Czartowiec. The increasing activity of collaborative Ukrainian formations, de facto deprived of German supervision, was observed.

Information reached the AK command about a mass attack by the genocidal UPA on Polish villages in the Germ. Landkreis Hrubieszów and the Germ. Landkreis Zamość planned for 16.03.1944. A preemptive action was decided upon. Its execution was entrusted to the unit of Stanislav Basaj, nom de guerre „Ryś”, unit. „Ryś” was the organizer and commander of the largest BCh unit, seasoned in battles against the Germans and the genocidal UPA, which, among other things, led to the stopping and then liquidation of the German Aktion Zamość. „Ryś” was to be supported by the AK unit of Zenon Jachymek, nom de guerre „Victor”. From c. 10.03.10, 1944, a regular war began between Polish partisan units and Ukrainian génocidaires from various collaborationist units, logistically and strategically supported by the Germans, and de facto under the control of the genocidal OUN/UPA, marked by battles, burned villages, and murders of civilians. The war that stopped the genocidal Ukrainian rampage in the Chełm and Zamość region.

In 03.1944, the battle was fought mainly south of the line marked by the Hrubieszów–Zamość road. The numerical superiority of the Ukrainian genocidal rebels, supported by the Germans, who undertook an „anti‐partisan action” — against Polish partisans, of course — meant that, after heavy fighting marked by murders, pacifications, and the burning of villages, the Polish command decided to withdraw behind the Huczwa River, from Tyszowce (7 km north of Czartowiec) to Tarnoszyn, c. 25 km to the south. The Polish population of the attacked villages also escaped west, beyond Huczwa. To the north of this section of the Polish defense line, c. 2‐4 km west of Huczwa, lie both Czartowiec and Muratyn.

The entire Polish defense was commanded by the commander of the AK Tomaszów district, Major William Szczepankiewicz, nom de guerre „Drugak”. On 02‐09.04.1944 a massive Ukrainian‐German attack on Polish defensive positions took place. The fighting took place mainly east of Huczwa. Despite the Ukrainian genocidal attackers being at least twice as numerous, the Poles held the defensive line, including in the battle of 05.04.1944. The next day, on 06.04.1944, the aforementioned genocide perpetrator, Miroslav Onyshkevych, specified the tasks of the UPA units under his command: „I order the immediate purging of my region of the Polish element […] The purging should be carried out in the sparsely populated areas by Poles. For this purpose, a militia group composed of our members should be established in the area, whose task would be to eliminate the above‐mentioned. Larger areas will be purged of this element by our military units even in broad daylight […] The purging of the area must be completed before our Easter, so that we can celebrate it without Poles […] Fight them hard and ruthlessly. Spare no one, even in the case of mixed marriages. Pull the Poles out of their homes, but do not eliminate the Ukrainians and children in these houses […] Take out your weapons. Death to the Poles”.

On 09.04.1944, on Easter Sunday, celebrated that year by Catholics and Orthodox on the same day, the Ukrainians attacked again. A major battle broke out along the entire length of the Polish defense line. According to sources, „it was one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles fought during the occupation by AK and BCh units with UPA units in the Zamość region”. Polish units, despite heavy losses, held most of their positions.

In Pukarzów and neighboring Wólka Pukarzowska, c. 3 km south of Czartowiec, Polish units set up field hospitals for wounded partisans.

And it was then, the day after the aforementioned battle, that was murdered by unknown perpetrators. The sources are ambiguous — there is mention of a Polish partisan unit, a unit impersonating a Polish formation, or a Russian unit activated due to the approaching German–Russian front and observing the Polish defense against the Ukrainian génocidaires.

Was killed „while holding a service”.

Was supposed to be dragged out of the church, in his chasuble.

Chased through the village.

Tortured.

The body was burned.

Polish defense prevented the Ukrainian genocide, on a Volyn scale, in the Zamość and Chełm regions. „Ryś” paid for this with his life in battles with Ukrainians, „Victor” and „Drugak” with his years in Commie–Nazi prisons during the Russian occupation („Victor” was sentenced to death). And for this, on 12.10.2007 the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. In 12.2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in a resolution, recognized génocidaire Dmitry Klachkivsky as „the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Volyn and a participant in the struggle for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century”. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis”, the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”

It is likely that the crime was committed by the so‐called UPA International Legion, that on 05.03.1944 crossed over from Volyn to the Chełm region.

According to Orthodox sources, it was mainly composed of „Asians, former soldiers of the [Russian] Red Army, assisted by 'guides'”.

The latter were supposed to be „criminals”, but could also be members of the genocidal UPA.