High Ukraine Cleric Accused of Glorifying Russian Invasion Seems in Court docket

KYIV (Reuters) – A prime Ukrainian cleric from a church with alleged Moscow ties appeared in a courtroom listening to on Saturday over accusations that he glorified invading Russian forces and stoked non secular divisions.

The listening to was adjourned to Monday after the cleric, Metropolitan Pavlo of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), complained of in poor health well being.

The courtroom look got here after Pavlo was questioned by the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU), which introduced the cleric with a sequence of accusations on the identical situation shortly earlier than.

The UOC has been accused of sustaining hyperlinks to the pro-invasion Russian Orthodox Church, which was once its mum or dad church however with which the UOC says all of it broke ties in Could 2022.

The UOC is Ukraine’s second-largest church, although most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate department of the religion, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, shaped 4 years in the past by uniting branches impartial of Moscow’s authority.

Sixty-one UOC clergy have had felony circumstances opened in opposition to them for the reason that begin of 2022, in response to the SBU. Of the seven discovered responsible, two have been traded for Ukrainian POWs in prisoner swaps with Russia, the SBU stated.

Pavlo, a senior UOC official, is the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a 980-year previous monastery advanced which the federal government stated earlier this week the UOC should go away. The church has to this point refused to take action.

In a video posted to the UOC web site earlier within the day, Pavlo stated he condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Folks can assume otherwise about what’s stated of me. I await God’s judgment. I’m not scared,” he informed worshippers on Saturday morning.

(Reporting by Max Hunder and Viacheslav Ratynskyi; Enhancing by David Holmes)

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