Cherkasy, Cherkasy Province, Ukraine, February 9, 2026
Photo: spzh.eu
His Eminence Metropolitan Theodosy of Cherkasy, a persecuted hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was convicted late last week of one of the four fabricated charges against him.
The conviction on inciting religious enmity was announced by Met. Theodosy himself during a sermon at the Krasnogorsk Monastery, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
His Eminence didn’t provide details of the sentence. The case is the first of four criminal proceedings against the hierarch to result in a guilty verdict.
The prosecution was initiated by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) over a sermon he delivered in February 2024 at a temporary shelter housing nuns of the Nativity of the Theotokos Women’s Monastery, who had been forcibly removed from their monastery in November 2023.
The nuns were expelled from their cells, clergy were beaten, and parishioners were injured. The sisterhood later found refuge at a skete of the Krasnogorsk Monastery.
Speaking to believers on February 7, Met. Theodosy described the case as “commissioned and crudely fabricated,” while stating that he accepted the verdict with gratitude to God. He said the defense would appeal the decision through all judicial instances in Ukraine, including the Supreme Court, and, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights.
During the course of the proceedings, many churches in Metropolitan Theodosy’s diocese have been violently seized, and there were at least two attempts on his life. The hierarch has spent years under house arrest as a preventive measure.
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