In Lutsk, a clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was forcibly detained by TCC officers

A high-profile incident has been reported in Lutsk involving the forced mobilization of a clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) by employees of the local territorial recruitment center (TRC). A video showing a group of individuals wearing balaclavas forcibly taking a man away has sparked widespread public outrage.

According to “First Cossack,” the incident took place near a store in Lutsk. The published footage shows a half-naked man, attempting to resist, being forcibly put onto a bus in full view of witnesses, including a woman believed to be the clergyman’s wife.

According to available information, the abducted man is Archpriest Ioann Kuzminsky, rector of the Church of St. John the Merciful in the village of Lyubche. Sources emphasize that this is the first case of the forcible mobilization of a clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in this region to be captured on video.

As a reminder, Viktor Yelensky, head of Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, previously stated officially that his agency does not grant exemptions from mobilization for clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).