RF special services detain a UOC cleric in Russia-controlled Luhansk region

Archimandrite Feognost (Pushkov). Photo: t.me/o_thg

Archimandrite Feognost (Pushkov), a clergyman of the UOC who serves in the Lugansk diocese, has been out of contact for four days. His last message on his Telegram channel was posted on the evening of June 20.

"I am in an ambulance, they want to detain me at the police station... I am between life and death... Please help, everyone who can. My mother won't survive this!" wrote the priest.

Earlier, on June 18, he reported receiving a summons to register for military service in Russia and threats of five years' imprisonment in case of refusal. On June 7, a search was conducted at Archimandrite Feognost's home, during which computers and smartphones were seized.

"For all these years, I wondered how he could survive in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and openly express his clearly non-pro-Russian views in public. He is an extremely intelligent clergyman of the UOC, his messages are always interesting to read; he is an extraordinary personality – emotional, sometimes overly so, but undoubtedly not ordinary," commented Father Oleksandr Klymenko of the Boryspil diocese on the situation.

A clergyman of the UOC urged support for Father Feognost, raising voices in his defense and praying for him and his mother.

As reported by the UOJ, Father Serhiy Chertylin told that he left the occupied territory to avoid being arrested only to be eventually detained by his compatriots.

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