In Ukraine, a priest has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason. The court in the northern Ukrainian city of Shostka found it proven on Wednesday that the priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church passed on information about the Ukrainian armed forces in the region to the Russian secret service FSB through a messenger, Kathpress and Catholic News Agency report.
The prosecutor’s office of the Sumy region cited his “pro-Russian feelings” as a motive for the pastor’s cooperation with the FSB. He waited for the Russian army to take the area. According to the information, the court also ordered the seizure of his apartment and other properties. The man was arrested in early March and has been in custody since then.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church split away
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOK) fell under the jurisdiction of Moscow Patriarch Kirill I until May 2022, but then broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church. The reason for the unilaterally declared secession is the Patriarch’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The government in Kiev has been siding with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OKU) for years. It was founded in late 2018 with the support of the honorary head of World Orthodoxy, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.
Since the major Russian attack in February 2022, the Ukrainian secret service SBU has opened about 70 criminal proceedings against UOK clerics, mainly for cooperation with war enemy Russia. Most recently, in August, a court in Vinnytsia sentenced the Metropolitan of Tulchyn, Ionafan (Yeletsky), to five years in prison. According to its own information, the SBU has already identified a total of 3,500 collaborators and accomplices of the enemy.
Source: Krone
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