A court in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has ordered the transfer of Metropolitan Arseniy, abbot of the Sviatohirsk Lavra, from pre-trial detention to round-the-clock house arrest until April 25, 2026.

The decision was handed down by the Chechelivskyi District Court of Dnipro. The hierarch, whose secular name is Yakovenko, was released directly from the courtroom after spending nearly two years in custody. According to Russian state news agency TASS, the next hearing in his case is scheduled for March 5.

Metropolitan Arseniy was initially detained on April 25, 2024, meaning he spent one year and ten months in a pre-trial detention center. In 2025, he was briefly released but was subsequently re-arrested. During one of the court sessions, the cleric reportedly suffered a hypertensive crisis and was hospitalized before being returned to custody.

His arrest sparked significant public reaction. The Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media of the Russian Orthodox Church called on international human rights organizations to assess the situation. Public figures abroad also voiced support for the detained archbishop.

According to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, international lawyer Robert Amsterdam, representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thanked those involved in the campaign for the metropolitan’s release. He said efforts had united Ukrainian lawyers and supporters of the church in the United States and other countries. Amsterdam stated that the hierarch “was released after nearly two years of imprisonment without trial and placed under house arrest.”

The case unfolds amid ongoing tensions over the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and tighter state policies in the religious sphere. The situation surrounding Sviatohirsk Lavra, which served as a shelter for civilians during hostilities, has drawn the attention of international observers and human rights advocates.