Facilitated the seizure of churches in the TOT: SBU serves suspicion notice to Russian metropolitans

The Security Service of Ukraine has collected a large-scale evidence base on four high-ranking Russian clerics who are spreading the Kremlin regime in the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine.

According to the SBU, all of them are members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In particular, they are:

• Head of the St. Petersburg Metropolis - Metropolitan Varsonofy (Anatoly Sudakov);
• Metropolitan Anthony (Anton Sevriuk), head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church;
• Metropolitan Georgy Ponomarev, head of the Kolomna diocese and patriarchal vicar of the Moscow Metropolis;
• Metropolitan Dionysius (Petro Porubai), Chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate.

According to the case, during 2022-2023, they facilitated the seizure of property of Ukrainian churches on the left bank of the Kherson region, as well as in Crimea and the temporarily occupied districts of Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions. For this purpose, the defendants, under the leadership of Patriarch Gundyaev, secured the decision of the Russian Synod to "join" Ukrainian religious communities to the Russian Orthodox Church. In this way, Russian clerics seized churches, church buildings and land in the dioceses of Dzhankoy, Berdiansk, Rovenky and Kherson and appointed bishops controlled by Moscow. Later, the proteges of the aggressor country imposed Kremlin narratives on the faithful, in which they blessed Russia's war against Ukraine and justified the crimes of the occupiers.

Based on the evidence collected, Sudakov, Sevriuk, Porubay and Ponomarev were served in absentia with a notice of suspicion of aiding and abetting in the commission of intentional acts to change the boundaries of the territory or state border of Ukraine, by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, which led to other grave consequences.

In November, under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, a field training camp for the clergy of the so-called "Crimean Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church" was held in Crimea. The training was attended by 24 clergymen, including military priests of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The purpose of the events was to educate and prepare priests who wish to travel to the combat zone on the territory of Ukraine or to army units in the TOT of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to provide pastoral care to the occupation military contingent.

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