UOC priest charged for his sermon in Zhytomyr region

The accused priest from the Zhytomyr Eparchy. Photo: Prosecutor's Office

A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been charged with denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, according to the press service of the Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor's Office.

According to the investigation, the priest allegedly spread pro-Russian narratives during a service in the church of a neighboring community in the Berdychiv district. In April 2022, during his pre-Easter sermons, he allegedly convinced parishioners that the president of the Russian Federation had not initiated a full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine. The prosecutor's office also claims that the priest claimed that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow had not blessed the war, instead calling the events a punishment for human sins.

The pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Zhytomyr region.

As the UOJ reported, the abbot of the Sviatohirsk Lavra is suspected of covertly leaking the locations of Ukrainian Armed Forces positions.

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