The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declared the suspicion to Archpriest Dmytro Krotkov, the head of the military department of the "Crimean Metropolis" of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), which purchases weapons and equipment for the Russian army.
This was reported in SBU press service.
The suspect organized a fundraiser in occupied Crimea for the needs of the Russian army. According to the investigation, "charitable contributions" go to the accounts of the so-called "special humanitarian center" of the local ROC community, which was headed by Krotkov.
With the money received, Krotkov wholesaled attack drones, thermal imagers, portable radio stations and anti-drone guns for the occupiers. Krotkov personally took all this to units of Russian troops stationed on the front lines in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions.
Also, during his stay on the front line, he, together with other clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church, consecrated the military equipment of the occupiers and "blessed" them for killing Ukrainians. And after the blasting of the Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant (HPP) with explosives, Krotkov visited the affected areas of the left bank of the Kherson region.
On the basis of the collected evidence, the investigators of the Security Service notified Dmytro Krotkov of suspicion under Part 1 of Art. 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (assistance to the aggressor state).
- Krotkov supported the Russians during the occupation of Crimea in 2014. At that time, he was the abbot of the UOC MP church in Simferopol and, together with the occupiers, tried to block the coastal defense brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the village of Perevalne. The cleric called on the Ukrainian defenders to surrender and go over to the side of the enemy. For this, he received a "position" in the so-called Crimean Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church.