The Rivne Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reported that the rector of the church in the village of Stavrov had been mobilized

On July 2, 2026, in the Volyn Oblast, officials from the Territorial Military Commissariat drafted Archpriest Vitaliy Tsipkaylo, a clergyman of the Rivne Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and rector of St. Michael’s Church in the village of Stavrov, into military service. The incident occurred during routine mobilization activities, according to a Facebook post by the press service of the Rivne Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

According to the published information, the reason for the conscription was the clergyman’s lack of an officially documented deferment from mobilization. It is currently known that, after completing the necessary procedures, the clergyman was assigned to a military unit.

Father Vitaly, born in 1983, is an experienced clergyman: he graduated from the Volyn Theological Seminary in 2007 and has led the parish in the village of Stavrov since November 2009. The diocese has called on the faithful to pray fervently for the archpriest in light of the current circumstances.

As a reminder, we previously reported that an incident occurred in the Rivne region in whichofficers of the TRC detained Archpriest Vadim Mulyar, a cleric of the Pokrovsky Convent of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.