The Khmelnytskyi Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reports that a priest has been detained by TRC officers

On July 11, 2026, an incident involving the detention of a member of the clergy occurred in the Khmelnytskyi region: officers of the Territorial Center for Recruitment forcibly took Archpriest Vladimir Stefanishin, the rector of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Sutkovtsy, to the military registration and enlistment office. According to the Khmelnytskyi Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the clergyman has already been sent to a military training ground in Rivne.

According to a statement from the Khmelnytskyi Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the archpriest was detained in the village of Yarmolintsy, after which he was transported to Khmelnytskyi. The diocese emphasizes that the authorities’ actions contradict the canonical norms of the Orthodox Church, according to which clergy are forbidden to take up arms or shed blood, as this is incompatible with their spiritual calling to offer the Bloodless Sacrifice.

As a reminder, we previously reported that Archpriest Alexander Goncharuk, a cleric of the Dormition Zimne Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was forcibly detained by representatives of the Territorial Recruitment Center (TRC).