Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk Province, Ukraine, October 29, 2025
Photo: novosti.dn.ua
His Eminence Metropolitan Arseny of Svyatogorsk of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church was released from a pre-trial detention center in Dnipro yesterday, October 28, after a year and a half, after his lawyers secured bail in the amount of 1.514 million hryvnias ($35,950), only to be immediately detained again by Security Service of Ukraine officers on new charges, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
The 18-month detention and health crisis
Met. Arseny, abbot of the Holy Dormition-Svyatogorsk Lavra, has been held in detention since April 25, 2024, without a conviction. His release was arranged due to his severe health condition—doctors determined he urgently needs heart surgery and comprehensive medical examinations by specialists.
However, immediately upon exiting the detention facility around noon on October 28, SBU officers, in a move to humiliate the hierarch and the whole of the canonical UOC, met the Metropolitan and presented him with charges that had been issued three weeks earlier. He was taken to SBU headquarters, where he was held until midnight while officers claimed they needed to “establish all the circumstances of the case.” SBU officers stated they could detain the hierarch for up to 72 hours.
After midnight, SBU personnel took Met. Arseny to a hospital where they obtained a medical certificate stating he was allegedly healthy. He was then returned to SBU headquarters, where he was forced to wait from 2:00 AM until 4:00 AM before being transferred back to a detention facility. A court hearing on a new measure of restraint was scheduled for today.
"They are simply slowly killing him"
Tatyana Tsaruk, head of the Rivne branch of the public organization Laity, issued a sharp video address before this most recent incident, condemning the treatment of the hierarch. “The judges and prosecutors who are managing this process are consciously destroying Met. Arseny’s health. It seems to me they’re slowly killing him,” Tsaruk stated.
She emphasized that Met. Arseny has been held in detention for a year and a half like a dangerous criminal, despite the ongoing trial and the lack of proven guilt. “The judicial processes are constantly postponed and delayed, and they simply extend his detention, violating all procedures. Everything is done as if the court and authorities are taking revenge on Met. Arseny, torturing him with unlawful detention,” she said.
Tsaruk noted the stark contrast between Met. Arseny's treatment and that of other accused individuals, questioning why a hierarch who provided humanitarian aid throughout the conflict in eastern Ukraine now sits in detention while others accused of more serious offenses remain free.
The charges and humanitarian work
According to investigators, Met. Arseny allegedly revealed the positions of Ukrainian defense forces' checkpoints near the Lavra in one of his sermons. Tsaruk disputed this interpretation, arguing the context showed the Metropolitan was discussing persecution of the Church.
She reminded viewers that since the beginning of hostilities in the east, Metropolitan Arseny consistently supported people affected by the conflict. “The Svyatogorsk Lavra together with Met. Arseny became an island of hope, an island of peace, a shelter for thousands and thousands of people amid the fire of war. The humanitarian mission of the Church and the Lavra under Met. Arseny’s leadership was incomparable to anything the state was doing at that time,” Tsaruk stated.
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