Metropolitan Evlogy of Sumy and Akhtyrsky of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) said that the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine had opened a criminal case against him because of the sermon.
"An accusation has been brought against me," Evlogy wrote in an address to the flock, which was published by the Telegram channel of the UOC.
The reason for the initiation of the case was, according to the church hierarch, his sermon posted on the YouTube video hosting on October 21, 2023, in which he spoke about the oppression of the canonical church in Ukraine.
There has been no comment from the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine yet.
The Ukrainian authorities are pursuing a policy of actively ousting the canonical UOC. Criminal cases are being initiated against many of its clergy under various pretexts. Articles about justifying the actions of the Russian Federation and inciting inter-religious strife are mainly used to bring charges. According to the latest data, since February 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine has opened more than 60 criminal cases against priests of the UOC, sanctions have been imposed against 17 clerics, and 19 hierarchs have been deprived of their country's citizenship.
At the same time, the transition of the UOC religious communities to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU), created in 2018 from two schismatic religious structures, is encouraged. The local authorities deprive the UOC of the right to lease land for temples, with their encouragement, the supporters of the OCU forcibly seize the temples of the canonical church, attack the priests. Despite this, according to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience of Ukraine, at least 5-6 million residents remain parishioners of the UOC in the country.