Representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine conducted regular searches in the house of Metropolitan Theodosius of the Diocese of Cherkasy of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the hierarch suffered a heart attack, the press service of the diocese of the UOC reports.
"In connection with the regular searches of the SBU, which began this morning, the Divine Liturgy was disrupted in the house church, at the Metropolitan of Cherkassy and Kanevsky Feodosiy. Vladyka had a heart attack," reads a message posted on the diocese's social network page.
Later, the diocese reported that according to the results of emergency measures carried out by doctors, Metropolitan Theodosius was diagnosed with a severe hypertensive crisis in combination with an attack of angina pectoris. "Vladyka has received the necessary medical assistance. The metropolitan refused to be hospitalized, he was prescribed strict bed rest," reads the message of the Cherkasy diocese of the UOC, published on the Telegram channel.
Earlier, Metropolitan Feodosiy of Cherkassy and Kanevsky reported that he was charged with supporting the Russian special military operation in Ukraine and inciting hostility on religious grounds. In the spring, a court in Cherkasy sent the metropolitan under house arrest while wearing an electronic bracelet. In December, the court lifted the round-the-clock arrest. The bishop himself stated that the case against him was political, far-fetched and falsified. In early September, clerics and parishioners of the Cherkasy diocese of the UOC sent an appeal to Vladimir Zelensky demanding that the criminal prosecution of the metropolitan be stopped.
The Ukrainian authorities have organized the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the country's recent history. Referring to its connection with Russia, local authorities in different regions of Ukraine decided to ban the activities of the UOC, and the parliament adopted in the first reading a bill on its actual prohibition throughout the country. The authorities have imposed sanctions on some representatives of the clergy of the UOC. The Security Service of Ukraine began to open criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, conduct "counterintelligence activities" - searches at bishops and priests, in churches and monasteries in search of evidence of "anti-Ukrainian activities."