Ukraine arrests pro-Russia clergy in security sweep

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has detained several individuals in different regions of the country on suspicion of supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, authorities said on April 24.

According to the SBU, four “prominent agitators” came under investigation for publicly backing Russian aggression. Most of those detained are members of the clergy.

Among them is a senior deacon of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), who allegedly used Telegram to call on Russian forces to abuse captured Ukrainian soldiers.

The SBU said it had documented instances in which the cleric urged Russian troops to imprison Ukrainian servicemen, deprive them of food and water, and subject them to forced labour.

In a separate case, an archimandrite from the Dnipropetrovsk region, formerly head of a church in the Sievierodonetsk diocese, is accused of openly justifying Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and encouraging parishioners to support Russia.

Investigators say that after the partial occupation of the Luhansk region in 2014, the cleric travelled to Russia to seek backing from the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Upon returning to Ukraine, he continued to conduct services while promoting pro-Russian views, including in private correspondence where he allegedly defended attacks on Ukrainian urban areas.

Elsewhere, in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, a local resident is accused of advocating for the revival of the Soviet Union, while in the Cherkasy region an unemployed man allegedly called for a missile strike on Kyiv.

Those implicated face up to 10 years in prison, with possible confiscation of property, under Ukrainian law.