From c. 1938 was the parish priest of the Orthodox parish of Okhlopiv — belonging to the Volyn Eparchy of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church PAOC — in the Polish Horokhiv county, Volyn Voivodeship. The village of Okhlopiv, its center, located c. 10 km southwest of the town of Horokhiv, was inhabited in 1939 by an estimated c. 1,400 people, 90% Orthodox Ukrainians, c. 15 Polish households, i.e. c. 100 Poles and c. 10 Jews. 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 „Germany–Russia Border and Friendship Treaty”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Volyn was occupied by the Russians. The Russians subjected Poles in particular to repression, sending many in four large deportations deep into Russia, „to Siberia”. They also applied repressions against the clergy, including the Orthodox, particularly of an economic nature, imposing astronomical taxes and removing religion from schools. All Orthodox priests — formerly belonging to PAOC — were forcibly incorporated 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 Gorochow (Eng. Horokhiv 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 Commissariate Ukraine).

A division occurred in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at that time. On 28.08.1941, in Pochayiv Lavra, the synod of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops proclaimed the establishment of the Autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church AUOC. The AUOC was to strive for autocephaly, i.e. independence, but recognizing the supremacy of the Moscow Patriarchate. In response, another group of Orthodox bishops announced on 08‐10.02.1942, 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. 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 recognized themselves as successors to the PAOC, whose autocephaly had been granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Based on the fragmentary information about his fate in the last years of his life, it seems highly probable that joined the AUCP.

While the Orthodox Church was debating and arguing about its internal structure in the new occupational situation, the Germans were beginning to implement the genocidal plan Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), i.e. the extermination of all Jews in the occupied territories. The local center for the implementation of this plan was the county town of Horokhiv, which in 1939 had an estimated population of c. 6,200 people, of whom Roman Catholic Poles constituted c. 17%, Orthodox Ukrainians c. 36%, and Jews c. 47%, i.e. 2,900 people. When the Germans entered Horokhiv on c. 24.06.1941, „the non‐Jewish locals rejoiced and greeted [the new occupier] with flowers”, reports the Jewish „Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos”. The next day, 25.06.1941, the Germans ordered the inhabitants to appear in the town square and then threw incendiary grenades into the houses. Prob. half of the houses in the town burned down, mainly non‐Jewish ones. At the end of 06.1941, the Germans arrested and shot 7 people, prob. Jews, accused of collaborating with the Russians. Then they established the Ukrainian police, later transformed into the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), which, according to the same Jewish source, „was merciless towards the Jews. They tortured any Jews they caught and robbed Jewish houses”. Such a pogrom, during which two Jews were killed, took place in 07.1941. The synagogue was burned down. On 12.08.1941, a unit of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei from Lutsk arrived in Horokhiv, under the command of the Germ. Geheime Staatspolizei (Eng. Secret State Police), i.e. Gestapo. The Ukrainians rounded up 300 Jews, „local notables”, forced them to dig a ditch in a nearby forest, then murdered them all and buried them in the ditch. Another 70‐80 people were murdered on 23.08.1941. At the beginning of 11.1941, the Germans established a ghetto, surrounded by a wooden fence topped with barbed wire. Everyone was forced to perform slave labor. The Germ. Judenrat (Eng. Jewish Council), assisted by the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service), was responsible for the implementation of German orders by the Jewish community. The two gates/entrances to the ghetto were guarded by the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei. c. 200 Jews tried to escape, but most were caught by the Ukrainians and murdered. The final Germ. Aktion (Eng. Operation) took place on 08/14.09.1942. c. 2,500 Jews — according to other sources, even c. 5,000, including Jews from neighboring villages, prob. also from his village Okhlopiv — were murdered over ditches dug along the road leading south, to Druzhkopol and Okhlopiv. The Germans could proudly report that the Germ. Kreisgebiet Gorochow 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 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”, from 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 Polish Institute of National Remembrance IPN states that „murdered on July 1, 1943 by an OUN gang”.

Other sources state that a „UPA militia unit” operated in Okhlopiv at that time. Horokhiv and the surrounding area became the site of many genocidal attacks of the OUN/UPA on Polish villages and settlements at that time. Thus, in the village of Pechykhvosty, located c. 4‐5 km north of Okhlopiv, in 05‐07.1943, about a dozen to a hundred Poles were murdered — „some of the Poles died on the spot, others were taken to the nearby forests”. On 04.07.1943, in the village of Bodyachiv, c. 5 km north‐west, over 20 people (4 families) were murdered, including „16‐year‐old Danuta Zielińska […] five thugs, having previously murdered her grandparents in the basement, brutally disfigured the innocent girl, then in a blood‐curdling way, cutting off her breasts, hands, ears and nose, they murdered her”. The greatest intensity of murders took place around 11.07.1941, called „Bloody Sunday”, when the genocidal OUN/UPA carried out attacks on c. 99 localities, especially in the neighboring Germ. Kreisgebiete Gorochow and Germ. Kreisgebiete Wladimir Wolinsk (pl. Volodymyr‐Volynskyi county). In those days, a whole series of murderous attacks took place in the vicinity of Okhlopiv. For example, in Kozyatyn, c. 12 km to the north, on 11.07.1943, 19 people were murdered. In the nearest Zagaje, only c. 3 km to the north‐west, the genocidal OUN/UPA, on 11‐12.07.1943, destroyed the entire village. Poles were murdered in their houses, in the fields, during escape attempts, by firearms and farm tools. „The cruelty of the attackers is evidenced by the fact that one of the villagers, who was grazing horses, had his tongue cut out and his eyes gouged out after being caught, and then was mockingly asked if he knew who had done it. The Ukrainian criminals left him in a pool of blood to die in agony and drove away”. In total, c. 260 people were murdered in Zagaje. In the village and colony of Polyukhne, c. 4–5 km to the north‐east, on 12.07.1943, a total of 89 Poles were murdered. And in Lemechiv near the above‐mentioned Kozyatyn, in 08.1943, during attacks on individual Polish farms and at refugees from attacked Polish villages, at least two families, i.e. 11 people, were murdered. In the entire 07.1943, 10,000‐20,000 Poles were murdered by Ukrainians.

The reason for his murder is unknown. There is no surviving information about the murders of Poles in Okhlopiv itself, but the aforementioned Zagaje, Polyukhne, Pechykhvosty, and Bodyachiv were located within his parish. Was murdered c. 10 days before „Bloody Sunday”, when preparations for genocidal attacks must have already been underway. Did he oppose the plans of the OUN/UPA militia? Or was the murder perhaps related to the division in the Orthodox Church? It is unknown.

It is known, however, that 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!”

According to another Ukrainian version, propagated since 1955 by Ukrainian refugees in Canada, most of them associated with the genocidal OUN/UPA, was murdered by „Germans”. Apparently, his parish Okhlopov became the site of German „punitive expeditions” several times. According to sources, the reason for these was the „legend” that the first units of the genocidal Ukrainian OUN/UPA organization were supposedly formed there, in the vicinity. One of such „punitive expeditions” took place in 1943, when the village was supposedly burned down.