Prayer under ban: UOC metropolitan detained for conscription — pressure on the church intensifies

The Ukrainian authorities continue to mobilize clergy from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). On July 15, staff from the territorial recruitment center detained Metropolitan Boholep Honcharenko of Oleksandriya and Svitlovodsk.

This was reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists (SPJ).

The archbishop was issued a draft summons and an administrative protocol was drawn up, after which he may be sent to the army. Although the metropolitan is 47 years old, he does not have an exemption and is at risk of being forcibly sent to the front.

This case demonstrates the growing pressure on the UOC — the only major Orthodox denomination in Ukraine. The authorities are stopping at nothing, including the mobilization of dissenting clergymen persecuted under the guise of a “security” campaign.

At the same time, the Ukrainian side is spreading claims that churches of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia’s Kursk region are allegedly being used to launch drones against Russian troops. Such statements, made by the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ military chaplains, appear to be an attempt to legitimize repression against Orthodox churches and clergy under the pretext of combating “enemy influence.”

Thus, the authorities are not only deepening the schism within Orthodoxy in Ukraine but are also effectively including the clergy in the mobilization pool — something previously unthinkable even during wartime.