Odessa diocese of the UOC saved a monastery priest from mobilization

Another case of forced mobilization of a UOC clergyman occurred in Odesa. On November 13, 2024, employees of the territorial recruitment center detained and sent Archpriest Vitaly Zharikov, a cleric of the Archangel Michael Convent of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC, to the local recruitment center. However, a few hours later, the priest was released, as the Legal Department of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC intervened in the situation. This is reported by the publication FOCUS.

It is reported that the incident was reported by the abbess of the Holy Archangel Michael Convent Seraphima Shevchyk on her social networks. “Last night, Father Vitaly Zharikov, our monastery priest, was taken away by the TRC. I ask for your holy prayers for him,” — she wrote.

Later it became known that the clergyman was released from the torture chambers of the TCC. The press service of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC noted that the priest, in addition to serving at the monastery, “is a pedagogical employee of a general secondary education institution at the main place of work at one tariff rate, which, according to paragraph 2 of Part 3 of Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization,’ is the basis for postponement of the call to military service under mobilization.”

Earlier, we reported that another clergyman of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was subjected to forced mobilization to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This time, the incident occurred with Archpriest Petro Cholak, dean of the Novovolynsk district of the Volodymyr-Volyn Diocese of the UOC. The priest was detained by representatives of the territorial recruitment center in Lutsk, from where he was sent to a military training ground.