In Liubytiv, a small village in the then Kovel county of the Polish Volyn voivodeship, c. 13 km southeast of Kovel, prob. already ministered before 1939. In 1939, it had an estimated population of c. 1,300, including c. 80% Orthodox Ukrainians, c. 17% Roman Catholic Poles, and c. 60 Jews.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the outbreak of World War II, in accordance with the provisions of the German–Russian, genocidal Ribbentrop–Molotov „friendship” pact, Volyn was occupied by the Russians. The Russians then forcibly incorporated all Orthodox priests into the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941 on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, the village became part of the Germ. Kreisgebiet Kowel (Eng. Kovel county) in the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien (Eng. Volyn‐Podolya General District) of the administrative occupation structure of the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat Ukraine).

A division occurred among the Orthodox clergy at that time. One of the factions of the Orthodox Church formed was the Autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church AUOC, the canonical proclamation of which was announced on 18.08.1941, by the synod of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops in Pochayiv Lavra. The AUOC strove for autocephaly, i.e. independence, but recognizing the supremacy of the Moscow Patriarchate. On 08‐10.02.1942, however, another group of Orthodox bishops announced the establishment of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church UAOC, under the auspices of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PAOC, which in turn, as early as 1940, had made an act of loyalty to the German genocide killer Hans Frank, Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. General Governor) of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. In the territory of the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the bishops of the UAOC considered themselves the successors of the PAOC, whose autocephaly had been granted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Based on the relatively scant information about his fate in the final years of his life, it seems highly probable that joined the AUOC, becoming its ardent advocate. Became even — at the behest of the OUN, the genocidal Ukrainian political organization — the head of his parish's village council, agitating for the creation of an independent Ukraine.

It is in this light that the information about the suspension‐reported on by some sources, but without specifying its date‐to which he was allegedly subjected prob. should be interpreted.

The Jews from his village were murdered — as part of the German genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question) — in 1942. First, they were herded into one of the two ghettos in Kovel, established on c. 27.05.1942 by the Germans, but guarded from the outside by members of the Ukrainian, collaborationist Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma; and inside by the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service). On 03‐05.06.1942 c. 9,000 Jews from one of the ghettos were transported in freight cars out of the city, unloaded c. 7 km to the north, near the village of Bakhiv, and murdered by the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei in previously prepared pits. The Jews from the second ghetto, c. 6,500, and c. 150 Roma, were murdered by the Germans and Ukrainians on 18.08.1942, at the Jewish cemetery in Kovel. Those who managed to avoid murder and hide were hunted by the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei. The last murders took place on 06.10.1942, prob. at the Polish Roman Catholic cemetery, where c. 2,000 remains of murdered Jews were found.

Shortly thereafter, in 02.1943 Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, who in 1941 was a member of the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Special Group Nightingale) — a unit of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) that took part in the German attack on Russians in 1941, accused of participating in the Jewish pogrom in Lviv in 1941 — and later a member of the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 (Eng. 201st Protection team Battalion) — responsible for the murder of Jews and civilians in the territory of Belarus — 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”.

Soon afterwards, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal addressed to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei 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”, in 06.1943. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, 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”.

Volyn was drenched in Polish blood. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by the Ukrainians — with German passivity — in an extremely barbaric manner. Hundreds of villages were burned.

It is unknown whether he participated in any of these events, or what his involvement might have been. Ukrainian sources are very circumspect — they only report that was „murdered by the Germans”.

It is known, however, that was considered a chaplain by the genocidal OUN/UPA — formally established, according to Ukrainian hagiography, on 14.10.1942, but actually at the beginning of 01.1943.

Perhaps some light on his attitude is shed by information from Polish sources that in 05‐06.1943 in the village of Liubytiv, „the local Orthodox priest called for the murder of Poles” and „blessed bread, the so‐called bread wreaths”. The „bread wreaths” — usually 3 loaves + 3 wreaths + 3 candles — were brought into the church and then blessed by an Orthodox priest. The act of consecration was accompanied by the reading of a proclamation calling for attacks on Poles, containing phrases such as „lakes of Polish blood”, „cleansing Ukraine of the Poles”, „whoever eats this bread will be saved”. The loaves of bread were then divided among initiated Ukrainians and distributed throughout the parish, and the collected crumbs were to constitute the leaven of subsequent „wreaths”. It is also known that this act had an effect — e.g. in c. 11.1943, in Liubytiv, Ukrainians murdered a Polish family.

The circumstances of his death remain however unknown.

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!”