Don’t Want to Go to the Front? Join the OCU: Pressure Mounts on UOC Clergy in Ukraine
A troubling new practice in Ukraine is undermining fundamental human rights—particularly freedom of conscience and religion. Clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which maintains canonical ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, are being given an ultimatum: either join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU)—now effectively a state-aligned institution controlled by the government—or face mobilization into the Armed Forces.
The key pressure tactic is the denial of military service deferrals. Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, headed by Viktor Yelensky, has approved a list of 7,736 religious organizations whose clergy are exempt from mobilization. The list includes the OCU, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Catholic and Protestant groups, Jewish and Muslim communities, and even neo-pagan associations. However, the vast majority of UOC parishes, monasteries, and dioceses were excluded.
Deacon Andriy Glushchenko called the decision a case of systemic religious discrimination. "Thousands of UOC parishes are being denied the right to shield their priests from mobilization, unlike every other religious group. This is a direct violation of equality and freedom of religion,” he stated.
While formal bans on UOC affiliation do not exist, clergy are being forced into conditions where remaining with the church risks forcible conscription. There are multiple reports of UOC clergy being detained, subjected to violence, and held incommunicado.
For example, in November 2024, 54-year-old Archpriest Oleh Melnyk was forcibly mobilized in Odesa. He was seized at a checkpoint, taken to a recruitment center, and held for over 24 hours without food or contact with his family. A video circulated online shows an officer at the Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC) physically assaulting the priest. Despite police intervention and a formal complaint, Melnyk remained in custody.
A similar incident occurred in Zakarpattia Oblast, where, according to MP Artem Dmytruk, two UOC priests were violently detained and taken to an undisclosed location without explanation. Their phones were confiscated—a move seen as an attempt to prevent documentation of abuses and block access to legal or family support.
International human rights standards—including Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights—explicitly prohibit religious persecution, including indirect coercion and blackmail. Forcing clergy to renounce their faith in exchange for safety violates not only Ukrainian law but also core principles of international humanitarian law.
A dangerous precedent is emerging: mobilization is becoming less about national defense and more about ideological purges. Those deemed loyal receive protection; the “inconvenient” are sent to the front lines.
This situation demands urgent attention from human rights groups, international monitors, and religious freedom watchdogs. The weaponization of conscription offices to target religious minorities signals a alarming erosion of the rule of law.
