Military enlistment officers detained a priest of the Vinnytsia diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and are not releasing him

Yesterday evening, employees of the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support detained Archimandrite Filaret (Olivinsky) of the Vinnytsia diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

This was reported by the press service of the diocese.

The church says that the cleric’s military registration documents are in order, and that the enlistment officers told him to go to the recruitment center to formalize a deferment.

“It is reported that the clergyman’s military registration documents, as well as his registration in the Reserve+ system, are in proper order. Despite this, when asked whether he had any summons or a formally issued deferment, Father Filaret was taken to the territorial recruitment center allegedly for the purpose of arranging the relevant documents that were supposed to provide an opportunity for a temporary deferment,” the statement says.

As a result, Filaret spent the night at the recruitment center and remains there.

The diocese noted that the archimandrite detained by the enlistment officers performs numerous duties in the diocesan administration: he is the personal secretary of Metropolitan Varsonofiy of Vinnytsia and Bar, as well as head of the chancery and secretary of the diocesan council of the Vinnytsia diocese.

It is worth recalling that recently, in Kharkiv region, enlistment officers took two monks from the Pishchansky Men’s Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to a recruitment center.