U.S. secures transfer of Metropolitan Arseny to house arrest for medical treatment

American lawmakers secured a reduction in the pretrial restrictions on Metropolitan Arseny, the abbot of the Holy Dormition Lavra of Svyatogorsk of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) — the clergyman was transferred from custody to house arrest.

This was announced by U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida.

“For some time we have been working to secure the release of Metropolitan Arseny from custody in Ukraine. He urgently needed heart surgery, and I am pleased to report that he has been released to receive the necessary emergency medical care and is now recovering under house arrest,” she wrote on X.

Luna also expressed concern about the situation of UOC clergy in general. According to her, she has heard that clerics “continue to be sent to the front lines as combatants, which is contrary to international law.” The congresswoman stressed that she would continue to monitor the situation of persecuted Christians in the country.

Metropolitan Arseny was re-arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine on October 28, 2025, in Dnipropetrovsk. He was charged with “justifying” Russia’s actions. The arrest came shortly after the clergyman had left a pretrial detention facility. On November 3, a Dnipropetrovsk court ordered him held in custody for 60 days. The hearing was interrupted due to the metropolitan’s poor health — he was hospitalized with a hypertensive crisis but was subsequently brought back.

Metropolitan Arseny was first detained on April 24, 2024. At that time, he was charged with disseminating information about the movement and positions of Ukrainian troops. Since April 2024, the Svyatogorsk Lavra had stated that the conditions of detention in the pretrial detention facility could adversely affect the abbot’s health. On October 23, the Dnipropetrovsk Court of Appeal released the clergyman on bail of approximately €29,000.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who held the post from 2010 to 2014, told TASS that Kyiv had begun to act more cautiously toward the canonical UOC due to U.S. “pressure” on the Ukrainian authorities. At the same time, the overall attitude of the Ukrainian authorities toward the canonical church had not changed, the former prime minister emphasized. According to him, UOC Primate Metropolitan Onufriy has been stripped of his citizenship, which is “a very serious precedent,” since a large number of documents are issued over his signature. In addition, UOC priests, unlike those of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, have no draft exemption: they are taken directly from services by employees of the territorial recruitment center and sent to the front lines.