From 1931, was the parish priest of the Orthodox parish of Baiv — belonging to the Volyn Eparchy of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PAOC — in the Polish Lutsk county, Volyn Voivodeship. The village of Baiv, its center, located c. 10 km southwest of the city of Lutsk, was inhabited in 1939 by an estimated 850 people, in practice exclusively Orthodox Ukrainians. In pre‐war Poland, Volyn 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 in the 19th century by the deliberate policy of the Russians, then ruling over this part of partitioned Poland — the direct route to the heart of Russia, 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, pursuant to 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 the PAOC — into the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941 on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation, his parish became part of the Germ. Kreisgebiete Luzk (Eng. District of Lutsk) in the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien (Eng. General District Volyn‐Podolya), which was part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng. Reich Commissariate of Ukraine). Prob. immediately afterwards was transferred to the parish of Kivertsi. In 1939, in practice, there were two localities named Kivertsi. C. 6 km southeast of Lutsk was the village of Kivertsi, inhabited by an estimated 850 people, of whom Orthodox Ukrainians constituted c. 87% and Poles c. 13%. C. 6 km further southeast was the settlement — also known as the small town — of Kivertsi, situated around the Kivertsi station, an important railway junction on the Kovel–Rivne line, which was also an important center of the timber industry with a state‐owned sawmill. At that time, the settlement had an estimated 1,900 inhabitants, of whom Roman Catholic Poles constituted c. 43%, Orthodox Ukrainians c. 38%, and Jews c. 16%, i.e. c. 300 people. And in the Kivertsi settlement there was an Orthodox church, where began ministering in 1941, but also a Catholic church of the Kivertsi parish, which in 1938 had 4,481 faithful living in a dozen or so nearby villages and colonies.

After the beginning of the German occupation, a division occurred among the Orthodox clergy. 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. The 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 establishment of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church UAOC, under the auspices of the PACP, which in turn, as early as 1940, had made an act of loyalty to the German génocidaire Hans Frank, the 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 PACP, 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 he joined the UAOC.

While the Orthodox Church was debating and arguing about its internal structure in the new occupational situation, the Germans were simultaneously beginning to implement their genocidal plan, the Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), i.e. the extermination of all Jews in the occupied territories. In the Lutsk region, where ministered, the German genocide was somewhat anticipated by events that had already occurred before the Germans entered the city. Namely, immediately after the German attack on 22.06.1941, on 24.06.1941, the Russian génocidaire leader, Lavrentiy Beria, head of the genocidal NKVD, issued an order to shoot all political prisoners held in the „western districts of the USSR”, i.e. in the Polish lands occupied by the Russians, „whose evacuation into the interior of the country was impossible”. In Lutsk, local, foresighted NKVD officers murdered prisoners as early as 23.06.1941. With machine guns and grenades thrown from prison windows into the courtyard where prisoners were gathered, c. 2,000 people were murdered (some estimates say as many as 4,000 killed by Russians fleeing in panic). Among them were c. 70% Ukrainians and c. 25% Poles, and everyone was executed, not just „political prisoners”. The Germans entered Lutsk on 25.06.1941, and a day later, Ukrainians carried out a pogrom against Jews in the city, considering them Russian collaborators — in many cases not without justification, as evidenced by a number of memoirs from that period, and, among other things, prob. participation of two Jewish women in the massacre of prisoners in Lutsk. Several houses and a synagogue were burned down. Just a week later, a unit of the Germ. Sonderkommando 4a (Eng. special group 4a) appeared in the city — part of the genocidal Germ. Einsatzgruppe C (Eng. Operational Group C) of the Germ. Sicherheitspolizei (Eng. Security Police), i.e. SiPo, and the Germ. Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers SS (Eng. Security Service of the Reichsführer SS), i.e. «SD», controlled by the Germ. Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Eng. Reich Main Security Office), i.e. RSHA — and on 02.07.1941, murdered 1,160 Jews in the city. On the same day, in Kivertsi, where soon became a parish priest, the Germans murdered, according to the Jewish „Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos”, „a number of Jews and Poles who held leading positions in the administration during the Russian occupation”, i.e. collaborated with the Russians. A day later, in Lutsk, at Lubart Castle, Germ. Sonderkommando 4a murdered another 1,000‐3,000 Jewish victims with machine guns.

At that time, there were c. 400 Jews in Kivertsi, some of whom had settled there in 1939, fleeing the German aggression from central and western Poland. The Germans based the administration of the settlement on Ukrainians, creating i.a. a unit of the Ukrainian collaborative formation Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), depending on the actual subordination to the German authorities also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Security Battalions), i.e. Schuma. According to Jewish sources, the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei „repeatedly robbed Jewish property and beat Jews”. A Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council) was established from among the Jews, which was made responsible for the implementation of German orders by the Jewish community — there was no ghetto in Kivertsi, but there was a kind of „Jewish quarter”, i.e. an open, unfenced ghetto.

The actual Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» began at the turn of 1941/1942. In the Lutsk region, the main Germ. Aktion (Eng. action) took place on in 05.1942. On 25.05.1942, a combined unit of the «SD», SiPo and Germ. Gendarmerie (Eng. gendarmerie), part of the Germ. Ordnungspolizei (Eng. Order Police), i.e. OrPo, came from Lutsk to Kivertsi and with the help of the local Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei, herded 270 Jews, half‐naked and barefoot, onto trucks and drove them out of the town. Some of the Jews who managed to avoid the Germ. Aktion were murdered over the next few months, while others fled to the Zofjówka colony, c. 20 km northeast of Kivertsi and c. 10 km east of the Polish of Przebrodź (Przebraże) colony, in the middle of the surrounding forests. C. 6,000 Jews were gathered there, murdered later by the Germans and Ukrainian collaborators on 26.07.1942 and 01.09.1942. Although sources suggest that the Jews deported from Kivertsi were murdered in the forests towards Lutsk, it is possible that they were murdered in a small forest by the Polonka River, near the village of Hirka Polonka, c. 4‐6 km from Baiv, where previously ministered, on the Lutsk–Brody road. There the Germans murdered the Jews from the ghetto in Łuck. The liquidation of that ghetto took place on 19‐23.08.1942. The Germans and the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei herded c. 14,000 Jews into the main square of the city, from where they were transported in trucks to Hirka Polonka. There, in a ditch c. 150 meters long and 6 meters wide, they were all exterminated. In the following weeks, the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei caught c. 4,000 more Jews attempting to hide, and they were also murdered in the vicinity of Polonka. It is estimated that in total the Germans and Ukrainians murdered c. 25,600 people in the vicinity of Polonka. The Germans could proudly report that the Germ. Kreisgebiet Lutsk was Germ. „Judenrein” (Eng. „free of Jews”).

Right after that, 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, 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 then, at the beginning of «Genocidium Atrox», perished.

The details of his death are, however, sketchy. Orthodox sources only state that died in 1943 at German hands. The same is true in some Ukrainian sources.

The most detailed, though indirect, information comes from the files of the genocidal OUN/UPA, from reports and orders kept in the State Archives of the Rivne Oblast in Rivne. They point to 05.1943 as the time of his death, that is, a period of growing terror among the Polish inhabitants of Volyn, when news of Ukrainian murders of Poles reached them almost every day. It began with the murder of c. 155‐173 Poles in the Parośla I colony, c. 90 km northeast of Lutsk. Then the genocidal murders spread to the whole area of the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien, with the Germans remaining passive. The murders also took place in the territory of his parish. And so, e.g. as early as in 03.1943, the UPA murdered 5 Poles in the Aleksandrówka colony. On 21.05.1943, on Roman Catholic Great and Holy Wednesday, in Hawczyce, „young UPA members murdered 7 Poles: a family of 5 with 3 children and 2 brothers”. On 25.04.1943, on Easter Sunday, in the Joanów colony, „local UPA members murdered 36 Poles in a cruel way, for example, Joseph Senda was roasted in hot slag”. In the village of Wertepy, „Ukrainians murdered [in 04.1943] the Puczyłowski family: a father with his 2 sons and a daughter”. In the same month, in the forest, near the railway station in his parish Kivertsi, „Ukrainians murdered 5 Poles returning from church: 3 girls and 2 boys aged 13 to 18, their bodies were mutilated”. In 05.1943, in the aforementioned Aleksandrówka colony, „Ukrainians murdered at least 20 Poles who had returned to their homes and to work in the fields: 86‐year‐old Catherine Guglas was stabbed to death, 37‐year‐old Stanislava Sawicka was sawn in half and her 3 children were burned in their home”. The same month, in the village of Ozero, „Ukrainians murdered 30‐year‐old John Dawidowicz”, and in Mikołajówka, they „burned down a Polish colony, the number of victims has not been determined”.

The aforementioned UPA sources contain information that on 28.05.1943, the Metropolitan of the Orthodox AUOC, i.e. the Church collaborating with the Germans, Bp Polykarp Sikorski — a Ukrainian by origin, from the beginning of his episcopal ministry openly sympathizing with the Ukrainian nationalists from the genocidal OUN, suspected of inspiring the assassination of Orthodox Archbishop Alexy Gromadzki, carried out less than three weeks earlier, i.e. on 08.05.1943 by OUN — at a meeting with the Germ. Generalkommissar (Eng. General Commissioner) of the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien, Heinrich Schöene, responsible i.a. for the genocide of Jews in Lutsk, reportedly complained: „Recently, the activities of the Polish police in Kivertsi have made a very heavy and depressing impression on the clergy and the entire [Orthodox] population. The priest was not to blame. A week before the famous events in Kivertsi, he visited me and told me with concern that Poles had spread a rumor that he was blessing knives for partisans to murder Poles and Germans. I assured him that no one would believe these rumors and would not attach importance to them. And then it turned out that this was the cause of his death. And if only he had been shot, but they laughed at him, beat him, knocked out his teeth, shot his parishioner and his wife in front of his eyes, and he was the last to die”.

It is not known what „known events in Kivertsi” were meant. It seems unlikely that the above‐mentioned murder of 5 Poles in 05.1943 was discussed. It is much more probable — if such a conversation took place at all — that it could have been about the events of 12.06.1943. Namely on 12.06.1943, „during one night the UPA murdered 150 Poles from the surrounding colonies”. „The bodies of the victims were placed by the Ukrainians under an obelisk with the inscription Ukr. "Смерть Ляхам, ще не вмерла Украйна і Земля і Воля" (Eng. "Death to the Poles, Ukraine and the Land and the Will have not yet died")”. The next day, on 13.06.1943, on the orders of the German authorities, the parish priest of the Roman Catholic parish in Kivertsi, Fr Casimir Batowski, buried the murdered in a common grave at the local cemetery. Accepting this hypothesis would mean recognizing the date of 28.05.1943, as the date of the conversation between Bp Sikorski and the Germ. Generalkommissar Schöene, as falacious.

It would, however, allow for the explanation of another piece of information, from Polish sources, which states that at the end of 07.1943, „the Hungarian and Dutch security of the railway station in Kivertsi together with German reinforcements from Lutsk [...] repelled the UPA attack on Kivertsi”. During this attack, „30 UPA members and the Ukrainian clergyman accompanying them were captured and shot”. The 07.1943 was the month in which the genocidal attacks of the OUN/UPA on Polish villages in Volyn culminated. E.g. on 11.07.1943, on „Bloody Sunday”, Ukrainian génocidaires attacked 99 Polish villages, mainly in the Vladimir and Horochiv counties. In total, in 07‐08.1943, the UPA attacked over 830 Polish villages, colonies and estates, barbarously killing c. 20,000 people. In 07.1943 also, the Polish self‐defense — as well as the Polish clandestine Home Army AK, which had no partisan units in the area until then, surprised by the course of events — began the defense of the aforementioned colony of Przebraże, c. 10 km north of Kivertsi, where c. 10,000‐20,000 Polish refugees from the Ukrainian massacres were supposed to have found shelter. At the peak of the attacks, Przebraże were attacked by even 3,000 Ukrainians. The defense of Kivertsi, where Poles from the surrounding villages and colonies also took refuge — there was a German police outpost near the railway station, and the genocidal „heroes” from the OUN/UPA usually avoided attacking towns where the Germans were stationed — was connected with the defense of Przebraże.

Accepting the hypothesis that he was the „Ukrainian clergyman” who was to be shot as a result of the UPA attack on Kivertsi would also explain another puzzling statement from the quoted account of the Sikorski–Schöene meeting — coming from UPA genocidal sources — about the participation of the „Polish police” in the murder. It is known from elsewhere that after the desertion of the „unemployed” Ukrainian policemen from the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei — after the murders of Jews — to the UPA, the Germans on c. 03.05.1943, brought to Lutsk the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon (Eng. security battalion) No. 202, almost entirely formed of Poles from the GG, commanded generally by Germans, but at the company level by Poles. One of the companies was supposed to be stationed in Kivertsi. On 21.08.1943, the battalion was transferred further east.

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!”