SBU accuses ROC clergyman of financing Russian troops

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has collected a vast evidence base indicating that the secretary of the Vyatka and Sloboda diocese of the Vyatka Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Priest Vitaliy Lapshyn, was involved in material and financial support of Russian military units in the war against Ukraine. According to the SBU, the clergyman is suspected of organizing systematic assistance to Russian servicemen.

According to the investigation, from the very beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops, the priest actively organized parishioners, volunteers and businessmen to collect funds and material goods «for the front». All collected humanitarian aid, including cars, camouflage nets, charging stations, dugout candles, medicines and tons of long-stored foodstuffs, was handed over to Russian servicemen participating in the fighting against the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of the Luhansk region.

It is noted that the clergyman not only organized the collection, but also systematically published video and photo reports about his visits, accompanied by appeals for further material assistance to the Russian army. These publications were posted on the official websites of the Metropolis and the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as on the social network «VKontakte».

On the basis of all the collected evidence, the SBU investigators notified the defendant in absentia of suspicion of financing actions aimed at the violent overthrow of the constitutional order in Ukraine. The charges are brought under parts 2 and 3 of Article 110-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

We shall remind you that earlier the Security Service of Ukraine reported about suspicion in absentia to a number of bishops — members of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. As reported in the Department, with respect to four representatives of the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church was collected a large-scale evidence base, according to which they allegedly spread the «Kremlin regime» in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Among the «accused» is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Anthony (Sevryuk).