Kiev, July 22, 2025
Photo: pravlife.info/
His Eminence Metropolitan Vissarion of Ovruch and Korosten of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church was hospitalized and underwent heart surgery on Sunday, July 20.
The hierarch, who has ongoing heart problems, was hospitalized at the Shalimov Institute in Kiev, reports the Telegram channel First Cossack.
He is scheduled to undergo another surgery as well.
His Eminence was one of the first hierarchs targeted by the state after the start of the war in early 2022, and in fact, he has been a target for decades. In 2019, he spoke about how under the USSR, the authorities accused him of working for the West, but now they accuse him of working for the Kremlin. The hierarch recalled how the KGB threatened to arrest him for distributing morning and evening prayers, and now the authorities harass him for standing firm in his loyalty to the true Church of Christ.
In April 2022, police conducted raids on diocesan buildings, confiscating books and threatening clergy and believers, trying to force them to transfer to the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
In September 2023, Met. Vissarion was indicted for “inciting religious enmity”—the same phony charge that has been brought against a host of hierarchs and clerics who denounce the schismatics.
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