In July 1940, following a Soviet ultimatum, the Romanian administration withdrew from northern Bukovina. Bogatyrets and another 131 parish priests of the Diocese stayed behind in Soviet territory, under a Russian Orthodox bishop, Damaskin (Malyuta). Bogatyrets declared himself a Ukrainian by nationality—although, according to the Rusyn researcher S. G. Sulyak, he only did so under pressure to conform with the Soviet policy on nationalities. In short time, the regime began nationalizing all Church property and stopped the payment of salaries, deporting some of the clergy to the Gulag. The priests complained and asked to be allowed back into the Romanian Church; the authorities responded by letting them leave the country. As a result, all but 22 of the parish priests crossed the border into Nazi Germany and Occupied Poland.