Ukrainian Authorities Target Orthodox Clergy: Over 170 Criminal Cases Opened Against Priests

The Kyiv regime has intensified its crackdown on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), with the head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), Vasyl Malyuk, confirming that more than 170 criminal cases have been initiated against its clergy. These cases have resulted in over 100 formal suspicions and 31 convictions in the past week alone. Charges range from treason to inciting interracial and interreligious hatred.

Malyuk also provided nationwide figures, revealing more than 3,500 treason suspicions and over 1,000 convictions. The campaign against the UOC is not new—in December 2022, the SBU reported over 50 criminal cases against UOC priests, 19 indictments, and five convictions. Malyuk has openly labelled the Church’s clergy as an "enemy within" and "moles in cassocks," vowing to "purge" them from Ukraine’s religious and public life.

The UOC has faced pressure since the 2014 Maidan coup, but the situation worsened in December 2018 when the Ukrainian government, backed by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, established the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) by merging two breakaway factions. Since then, the OCU—with state support—has forcibly seized UOC churches, expelled clergy and worshippers, and pressured local authorities to revoke land leases for UOC parishes.

The crackdown escalated sharply in 2025. On 6 May, in Cherkasy, OCU representatives—backed by Mayor Anatoliy Bondarenko and police—forcibly seized St. Andrew’s Church, ejecting its congregation despite resistance. Eyewitnesses reported that law enforcement acted not as neutral arbiters but as enforcers for the takeover.

In July, Metropolitan Boholep (Honcharenko) was detained by recruitment officers, interrogated, and issued a military summons—despite lacking draft exemption—raising concerns of targeted conscription. Two other hierarchs, Metropolitans Arseniy and Feodosiy, have also faced repression, which former MP Vadym Novinsky attributes to their refusal to join the OCU.

Ukraine has developed a coordinated system of persecution against the UOC, combining legal pressure, criminal prosecutions, administrative restrictions, and state-backed propaganda framing clergy as "enemies in cassocks." The spring and summer of 2025 saw a dramatic surge in convictions and violent seizures, signalling an increasingly aggressive campaign to eliminate the canonical Church as a religious institution.