In the Rivne region, TRC officers mobilized a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

An incident involving the forced conscription of the rector of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church parish occurred in the Rivne region. Archpriest Pavel Stepanyuk, 59, was detained by representatives of the regional recruitment center, despite having documents confirming the need to care for his ailing mother.

According to a statement from the Rivne Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, on July 16, 2026, the clergyman, born in 1967 and serving as rector of the Church of the Presentation in the village of Zalavye, was forcibly taken away by employees of the Mliniv Regional Recruitment Center and subsequently mobilized. The diocese emphasizes that church representatives provided all the necessary documentation to qualify for a deferment, but these circumstances were not taken into account when the decision was made.

Diocesan representatives expressed hope that all the circumstances of the case would be thoroughly examined and called for compliance with legal norms during the mobilization process.

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