Kiev, November 11, 2025
Photo: spzh.eu
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on the scale of its persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) yesterday.
The SBU announced that it has initiated 208 criminal proceedings against UOC representatives since the beginning of the war in 2022. According to the agency, 27 of those targeted are high-ranking hierarchs—metropolitans and archbishops—who it claims are working for Russia, though its well known that many charges are wholly fabricated in an attempt to pressure the UOC to join the schismatic state-run “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
The SBU alleges that the clergy carried out assignments from Russian intelligence services aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation in Ukraine. According to investigators, hierarchs used religious communities to recruit believers into Russia’s agent network, justified Russian war crimes, and called for the seizure of Ukraine.
According to the SBU, 78 UOC representatives have been charged with crimes based on its materials, while 40 clergy have been sentenced to imprisonment, including four hierarchs serving as diocesan administrators in various regions of Ukraine. The agency also reported that 19 UOC clerics holding Russian passports have had their Ukrainian citizenship revoked or temporary residence permits canceled at its initiative.
Charges against Metropolitan Onuphry
The SBU boasts that it had revoked the Ukrainian citizenship of Orest Berezovsky, better known as His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, head of the UOC.
The agency claims Met. Onuphry is in contact with the Moscow Patriarchate and consciously opposed obtaining canonical independence for the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Patriarchate. The SBU alleges that despite the war, Met. Onuphry continues to support the policy of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership, including Patriarch Kirill.
These charges are contradicted by documented facts. Metropolitan Onuphry presided over and supported the Local Council in May 2022 at which the UOC separated itself from the Moscow Patriarchate, as reflected in its amended statutes. Met. Onuphry no longer commemorates Patriarch Kirill as an authority over him, nor does he participate in Moscow Patriarchate Synodal meetings. The UOC has also resumed making its own Chrism.
Case of Metropolitan Arseny
A prominent example of the SBU’s campaign is the case of His Eminence Metropolitan Arseny of Svyatogorsk, who has been held in detention for a year and a half on fabricated charges.
He was initially charged with allegedly revealing Ukrainian military positions by mentioning a checkpoint in a homily, though the homily was only published after the checkpoint was removed. After being briefly released, he was immediately arrested again on new charges of allegedly denying Russian aggression and accusing Ukrainian forces of causing deaths and damage at his monastery.
Met. Arseny has emphasized he had opportunities to leave Ukraine when Svyatogorsk Lavra was under fire in 2022 but chose to remain. Despite suffering a hypertensive crisis with blood pressure of 200/110 during court proceedings in early November, he was denied proper medical care and sentenced to another 60 days of pre-trial detention.
The SBU also reported bringing charges against Pat. Kirill and 18 other representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy.
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