The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) declared in absentia about the suspicion of four Russian metropolitans who contributed to the seizure of churches in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
This was reported by the SBU press service.
All four are members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is about:
- the head of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, Metropolitan Varsonofy (Anatoliy Sudakov);
- the head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Anthony (Anton Sevryuk);
- the manager of the Kolomnytsky eparchy, the patriarchal vicar of the Moscow metropolitanate, Metropolitan Krutytskyi (Heorhiy Ponomaryev);
- the manager of affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Dionysius (Petro Porubai).
According to the case materials, in 2022-2023 they contributed to the seizure of the property of Ukrainian churches on the left bank of the Kherson region, as well as in the Crimea and temporarily occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions.
For this purpose, those involved under the leadership of Patriarch Gundyaev secured the decision of the Russian Synod on the "joining" of Ukrainian religious communities to the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to SBU, this is how clerics seized the churches and land of the Dzhankoy, Berdyansk, Rivne and Kherson dioceses and appointed Moscow-controlled bishops there. There, the Kremlinʼs narratives were imposed on believers, Russiaʼs war against Ukraine was blessed, and the actions of the occupiers were justified.
Sudakov, Sevryuk, Porubai and Ponomaryov were notified in absentia of suspicion of aiding and abetting in actions committed with the aim of changing the borders of the territory or the state border of Ukraine, with the prior conspiracy of a group of persons, which led to other serious consequences (Part 5 of Article 27, Part 3 Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
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