During World War I, served as a medic, prob. in the Russian Imperial Army — it is unclear in which units.

In 1939, for unknown reasons, was in retirement, i.e. „at rest”, not workin in any specific Orthodox parishes of the Volyn Eparchy of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PAOC. Likely stayed in Volyn — perhaps in his home village of Kusnyshcha, c. 6 km north of the county town of Lyuboml in the Polish Volyn Voivodeship. Kusnyshcha was a village basically 100% Orthodox Ukrainian — perhaps a dozen or so Poles lived there as well, prob. in Ukrainian families, and a dozen or so Jews. The situation was similar throughout Lyuboml County, where the Orthodox Ukrainian population constituted c. 80% of the inhabitants, and Roman Catholic Poles c. 13%.

Volyn in pre‐war Poland had prob. the smallest percentage of the Polish population in the entire country. It was also prob. the least economically developed voivodeship of Poland, which was caused by the deliberate policy of the Russian occupation of the partitioned Poland in the 19th century — the direct route to the heart of Russia, to Moscow, runs through Volyn, so fearing an attack from the west, no roads were laid there, no bridges built, no marshy areas around the Pripyat drained, no industry located, and no schools established.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, under the genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, confirmed on 28.09.1939 by the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Volyn was occupied by the Russians. The Russians then forcibly incorporated all Orthodox priests — previously belonging to PAOC — into the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

And it was then, in 1941, or perhaps already after the German attack on 22.06.1941 on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, that accepted cheirotonia, i.e. priestly ordination. If this happened after the beginning of the German occupation — when his native Kusnyshcha became part of the Germ. Kreisgebiet Lyuboml (Eng. Lyuboml County) in the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien (Eng. General District of Volyn‐Podolya), which was part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariat of Ukraine) — then it is prob. that was consecrated as the iereus of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church UAOC. A division occurred among the Orthodox clergy at that time. One of the factions of the Orthodox Church became the Autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church AUOC, whose canonical proclamation was announced on 18.08.1941, by the synod of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops in Pochayiv Lavra. AUOC sought 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 creation of the UAOC, under the auspices of the PAOC, which in turn, as early as 1940, had made an act of loyalty to the German génocidaire Hans Frank, Germ. Generalgouverneur (Eng. Governor General) of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG. In the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the bishops of the UAOC considered themselves the successors of the PAOC, whose autocephaly was granted by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Based on information about his fate in the last years of his life, it seems highly probable that even if he was not ordained in the UAOC, joined it, becoming its ardent advocate.

It is not known where ministered in 1941/1942, but it can be assumed that was in his home county. This means that was there at the time when the fate of the Jews was being played out. The Germans drove the Jews living in Kusnyshcha prob. in 1942 to Lyuboml. On 06.12.1941 a ghetto was established there, basically open, without a surrounding fence or wall, but with a number of guardhouses, manned by Ukrainian members of the collaborationist Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), referred to as Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma. Schuma's task was to prevent Jews from escaping from the ghetto. At the turn of 1941/1942, the Germans began implementing the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question). The first group of Jews, c. 900, were murdered by the Germans in Lyuboml with the help of Ukrainians from Schuma already in the summer of 1941, but the final Germ. Aktion (Eng. operation) of the ghetto liquidation took place on 01.10.1942. Ukrainian policemen from Schuma and German gendarmes herded c. 3,000‐4,000 Jews to the market square and from there, under arms, led them c. 3.5 km to the northeast, near the village of Borky, neighboring Kusnyshcha, where a few months earlier the Jews had been forced to dig four deep ditches. There, on the banks of these ditches, the Jews were ordered to undressed, and then they were all shot. According to the Jewish „Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos”, „Many Jews hid in the ghetto in prepared hiding places. The Ukrainian police tore up floors and demolished walls in search of those in hiding. Peasants from neighboring villages sneaked into the ghetto and robbed Jewish property […] [Those who hid outside the town] were betrayed or captured by the Germans and the Ukrainian police within the next few months”. The Germans could report that Lyuboml and the surrounding area were Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „free of Jews”).

Immediately afterwards, in 02.1943, in Volyn, 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”.

Immediately thereafter, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and Schuma, to desert and join the UPA ranks. 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.

And it was then that became involved with the genocidal OUN/UPA. It is not known exactly when this happened, but it is known that in 08.1943 had nom de guerre „Holub”. Collaborated with the kuren, i.e. unit, led by the degenerate Ivan Klymchak, nom de guerre „Lysy”.

In 1942, Klymchak served in the Schuma 103 battalion, stationed in Matsiiv, c. 20 km east of Lyuboml. There, he participated in the extermination of Jews — e.g. in mid‐09.1942, c. 2,000‐2,500 Jews were murdered there, and in the following months they were targeted in human hunts. In 03.1943, an OUN/UPA attack on Matsiiv allegedly took place, although it is difficult to find a justification for such an act, apart from the desire to plunder Jewish property and murder Poles residing there. Matsiiv in 1941 was inhabited, according to Jewish sources, by c. 2,600 Jews, who constituted c. 75% of the town's population — in 1939, an estimated 7% of Poles and c. 18% of Ukrainians also lived there. The attack had no military sense, except that the Schuma 103 battalion which set off in pursuit of the UPA band … deserted to the UPA.

The culmination of the genocidal murders of Poles in Volyn took place in 07.1943, but it bypassed e.g. the Germ. Kreisgebiet Lyuboml. In this case, the commencement of the murders by the aforementioned Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur” had to be forced upon. Another degenerate, Yuri Stelmashchuk, nom de guerre „Rudyi”, was responsible for its implementation. The „trade of murder” he was taught by the Germans — in 1940/1941 was trained in the Germ. Abwehrschule (Eng. Abwehr school), i.e. at the intelligence and sabotage school of the German military intelligence and counterintelligence, the Germ. Abwehr (defense), near Brandenburg an der Havel, and later at the Germ. Truppenübungsplatz (Eng. military training ground) in Neuhammer (today Świętoszów), took part in the training of the Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, probably together with Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”. In the first half of 1943, Stelmashchuk formed the Ukr. Загон (Eng. detachment) UPA „Ozero”, which included i.a. the kuren of „Lysy”.

At the end of 08.1943, the UPA „Ozero” attacked Polish villages. „Rudyi” testified in 1945: „In August 1943, together with […] the UPA, I slaughtered over 15,000 Poles in the Kovel, Sedlyshche, Matsiiv and Lyuboml regions of the Volyn Oblast”, i.e. in the Germ. Kreisgebiet Lyuboml and the Germ. Kreisgebiet Kowel.

Everything indicates that was already then a „medical course instructor” at the „Lysy” kuren. And this kuren is directly responsible for i.a. the genocidal attack on 29‐30.08.1943 on the village of Wola Ostrowiecka, c. 10 km from Kusnyshcha, where the UPA murderers slaughtered 620‐700 Poles. „They ordered the victims to take off their clothes and shoes, hand over their watches and gold, and then led them to a ditch dug in a barn, where they murdered them […] with axes, [clubs, sticks, axe heads and hammers], hitting them in the back of the head and impaling them with pitchforks […] After murdering the men, the torturers began to take out several women and children. Hearing the Germans" cars passing by, they closed the school, which contained c. 200 women, children and elderly people, covered it with straw, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. They also threw several grenades into the interior through the window […] [During a partial exhumation in 1992] a well filled with victims was also found, as well as a woman with a child at her breast, pinned together to the ground with a pitchfork. They robbed Poles" property all day long, with Ukrainian women and girls participating in this”. On the same day, the kuren of „Lysy” also attacked the neighboring village of Ostrówki, where — shouting „Poles, give back your watches and gold, and if not, we will kill you immediately” — the Ukrainians murdered 476‐520 Poles. On the same day, another village was attacked, Kuty, c. 7 km from Kusnyshcha, where 250 Poles were murdered. Ivan Klymchak, nom de guerre „Lysy” reported: „On August 29, 1943, I carried out operations in the villages of Wola Ostrowiecka and Ostrówki […] I liquidated all Poles, from young to old. I burned all the buildings, and I took all the property and belongings for the needs of the kuren”. In total, on 29‐30.08.1943, the UPA attacked 30 Polish villages in the Germ. Kreisgebiet Lyuboml.

Quickly rose in the ranks of the UPA. Immediately after the described murders, became the „chief physician” in the „Lysy” kuren. And from the end of 12.1943, was already the „chief physician” of the WO‐1 „Turiv” UPA military district. This happened at the moment when the UPA expanded its activities and the «Genocidium Atrox» of the Poles — in connection with the increasingly obvious signs of German defeat in the east and the approaching of German–Russian battlefront, enforced from 24.12.1943, by the implementation by the Russians of another large‐scale offensive called the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation — to the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galizia) in the GG. The UPA units operating in Volyn were transformed then into the „UPA‐North” operational group, under the command of Klachkivsky nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, and i.e. Ukr. Загон UPA „Ozero” into WO‐1 „Turiw”, under the command of Stelmashchuk nom de guerre „Rudy”.

After a few months, at the end of 02.1944, came into conflict with the clerk, i.e. head of the medical service of WO‐1 „Turiw” — called Ukr. Український Червоний Хрест (Eng. Ukrainian Red Cross), i.e. UCK — Lubov Hnatyuk nom de guerre „Bila”. Returned to the „Lysy” kuryn. Just a month later, his „field hospital” in the village of Paryduby, c. 25 km east of Kusnyshcha, halfway to Kovel, was attacked by a Russian partisan detachment, part of a Russian partisan group under the command of Alexei Fedorov. Fedorov's partisans, which were de facto a unit of the Russian army fighting behind the German–Russian battlefront, were then carrying out Operation „Kovel Junction”, attacking the logistical support base of the German army in the area of Kovel. Railroad lines were attacked in particular, disrupting the supply of German equipment and troops, as well as OUN/UPA units, rightly considered to be German allies. The Russian partisans cooperated at that time with the Polish 27th Volyn Infantry Division of the Home Army, i.e. 27 DP AK (part of the Polish Clandestine State, the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe), formed of Poles who survived the Ukrainian «Genocidium Atrox» genocidal attacks, although they often lost entire families and property.

Survived the Russian attack and hid in the village of Stara Huta, c. 20 km northeast of Kusnyshcha. And on 17.04.1944, the Russians suspended the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation for the spring period, failing to capture Kovel — the battlefront stopped several kilometers east of the city.

Immediately afterwards, moved to the Orthodox St Nicholas monastery in the village of Meltsi, c. 25 km north of Kovel. There survived until the end of the German occupation. Kovel and Meltsi the Russians prob. captured on c. 05‐06.07.1944, as part of a cover action on the southern wing of the large Russian offensive, known as Operation Bagration, launched on 22.06.1944.

After the beginning of the Russian occupation, the OUN/UPA suspended operations for a time — due to losses suffered when large Russian front units, supported by Russian partisan units, were moving through Volyn. But in 09.1944, Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, ordered Stelmashchuk, nom de guerre „Rudyi”, commander of the WO‐1 „Turiv” UPA military district, to resume UPA operations — in much more difficult conditions, without German support.

And it was then that was „discovered” by the UPA: more precisely, by Ivan Danilevich, nom de guerre Ukr. „Kіт” (Eng. „Cat”), till 10.19441944, i.e. the death of the génocidaire Ivan Klymchak, a member of the „Lysy” kuren, and then a member of the genocidal Ukr. Служба Безпеки (Eng. Security Service), i.e. SB OUN, tasked with the tracking down political and ideological opponents of the OUN, physically liquidating them, and also participating in the murders of the Polish population. Sources indicate that „SB OUN could only issue death sentences to "enemies of the Ukrainian nation" […] For minor offenses, the so‐called buki were used, i.e. beatings with beech sticks from 10 to 50 strokes. Major offenses were punished by death. The sentence was carried out by shooting or hanging […] some group commanders "chopped off the heads of their victims"”. The SB OUN was founded in 1940, under the watchful care of the Germans, and training was conducted, among others, in Zakopane, at the „Stamary” hotel. According to the contemporary website of this hotel, „the training included the principles of sabotage, Gestapo methods of interrogation and methods of killing”. At the same time, i.e. on 20.02.1940, in Zakopane, at the „Pan Tadeusz” (Eng. „Sir Thaddeus”) and „Telimena” villas, the third so‐called „thematic conference” of the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo, and the Russian Rus. Народный Комиссариат Внутренних Дел (Eng. People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs), i.e. NKVD, two genocidal allied organizations, debating cooperation and ways of combating and exterminating Poles in the territories they occupied. In Zakopane, all these undertakings were supervised by the Gestapo, which had its headquarters in the „Palace” villa, where Polish patriots were being murdered.

On 16.12.1944 went to the headquarters of WO‐1 „Turiw”, whose chief of staff was Alexy Hromadyuk, nom de guerre „Holubenko”, stationed in the village of Tryputnya, c. 30 km north of Sarny — Hromadyuk had previously, i.a. in 08.1943, commanded one of the kurens of Ukr. Загон UPA „Ozero” and prob. participated in the genocidal murders of Poles in the then Germ. Kreisgebiet Lyuboml. Adopted a new nom de guerre „Marchenko”.

He did not enjoy it for long, because at the end of 12.1944 Hromadyuk, nom de guerre „Holubenko”, after a conversation with Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, with expanded powers within the UPA, left Tryputnya — the village where, on c. 06.04.1943, Ukrainians „butchered 14 Polish families” — and headed west, towards Kamin‐Kashyrskyi.

On 27.12.1944, the headquarters of WO‐1 „Turiw” was attacked — in the Yama farmstead, c. 10 km northwest of Tryputnya, c. 4 km from Stepanhorod, the village where in 09.1943 the genocidal OUN/UPA murdered c. 120 Poles, i.e. c. 12% of its inhabitants — by a unit of the genocidal Russian NKVD. Hromadyuk, nom de guerre „Holubenko”, was killed in combat.

Managed to escape the raid and made it c. 40 km south, to the village of Stara Rafalivka near the town of Varash, not far — about 7 km — from Kostyukhnivka, famous for its heroic defense of the Austro–Hungarian Empire's battlefront line of 04‐06.07.1916, against the Russian advance during the so‐called Brusilov Offensive during World War I, by units of the Polish Legions, particularly the 1st Brigade, under the command of Joseph Piłsudski.

There, on 30.12.1944, discovered by NKVD agents.

Taken to the village of Rafalivka, c. 12 km southeast — where on 30.06.1943, „during a nighttime attack, the UPA murdered several dozen Poles living on the outskirts of the colony” — where the local NKVD station was located.

Further fate unknown — prob. executed by the Russians.

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”. On 11.10.1945, Lubov Hnatyuk, nom de guerre „Bila”, was awarded the Silver Cross of Merit of the UPA (No. 042), which on 18.04.2018 was transferred to the Volyn Museum of Local Lore in Lutsk — Poles miraculously saved from the attacks of the kurens in which she served during «Genocidium Atrox», somehow do not recall her providing them with medical assistance. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis” — i.a. Yuri Stelmashchuk, nom de guerre „Rudyi”, has a monument in his home village — the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”