The Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU) has formally charged 14 high-ranking metropolitans and archbishops of the Russian Orthodox Church for his or her involvement within the unlawful seizure of Ukrainian church buildings in Russian-occupied territories, the company introduced on April 22.
Based on the SBU, the accused clerics have been a part of the Kremlin-controlled "holy synod" of the Russian Orthodox Church from 2022 to 2024.
Performing underneath the course of Russian Patriarch Kirill — an outspoken supporter of Russia's full-scale struggle towards Ukraine — they helped orchestrate the compelled takeover of non secular communities throughout occupied areas, together with Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson oblasts, and Crimea, the SBU stated.
The bishops oversaw the incorporation of the Dzhankoy, Berdyansk, Rovenky, and Kherson dioceses into the Russian Orthodox Church, changing native management with Moscow-appointed figures who brazenly endorsed the struggle and promoted Kremlin propaganda.
All 14 suspects have been charged in absentia with complicity in efforts to change Ukraine's state borders in violation of the nation's Structure, carried out in coordination with others and leading to grave penalties.
The SBU stated it continues efforts to deliver the suspects to justice for his or her position in crimes towards Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill was added to Ukraine's needed listing in December 2023 on costs of infringing on Ukraine's territorial integrity, a criminal offense that carries a possible life sentence.
In August 2024, Ukraine's parliament handed laws banning the actions of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which has lengthy maintained ties to the Russian church. A lot of its clergy have been accused of aiding Russian forces or supporting the invasion.
Most Ukrainian Orthodox Christians now belong to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, an unbiased physique shaped in 2019 and acknowledged as autonomous from Moscow.
The Kyiv IndependentYuliia Taradiuk