The UOC is going to court: authorities denied priests of the Cherkasy diocese a deferral from mobilization

The Cherkasy Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has been forced to take legal action following yet another act of discrimination by state authorities. The issue centers around a decision by Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, which denied the diocese’s clergy exemption from military mobilization.

The diocese’s press office described the decision as not only unjust but also openly discriminatory, unlawful, and legally void.

The Cherkasy Diocese has filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court, demanding the restoration of the constitutional right of UOC clergy to a deferral from mobilization, as provided by law. However, given the current political climate, the prospects for a fair hearing appear increasingly slim.

Notably, thousands of other religious organizations in Ukraine — including questionable and fringe groups associated with figures like Sunday Adelaja and Volodymyr Muntyan — have easily secured exemptions for their personnel. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of parishes belonging to the canonical UOC, to which the majority of the country’s Orthodox believers belong, have been demonstratively overlooked.

As a result, cases of forced mobilization of UOC priests are now being reported across the country. These incidents are no longer isolated and appear to be part of a systematic campaign of pressure on the Church.

For example, in Kremenets (Ternopil region), military enlistment officers forcibly detained Archimandrite Paphnutius, abbot of the Pochayiv Holy-Spirit Monastery-Skete. No warrant or legal justification was presented — just the violent detention of a clergyman in monastic attire.

Another incident occurred near Rivne, where military officials conscripted a sick UOC priest on his way to a service at the Holy Trinity Church. Neither his physical condition nor his sacred duty to his congregation deterred the military representatives.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Each day brings more evidence that, under the pretext of mobilization, the Ukrainian government is systematically dismantling the UOC as a spiritual and social institution. The discriminatory actions of the authorities appear to be yet another stage in the repression of the canonical Church, which continues to remain faithful to its doctrines and traditions despite political pressure.