UOC priest subjected to forced mobilization in Ternopil region

Representatives of the Kremenets District Territorial Recruitment Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine subjected Archpriest Vladislav Batyuk, a clergyman of the Rivne Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to forced mobilization. The priest is the rector of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Druzhba, Radyvyliv district. This was reported by the press service of the Rivne Eparchy of the UOC.

It is reported that on May 22, 2025, on his way back from the service, Archpriest Vladislav Batyuk was detained in Pochayiv by representatives of the TRC. The priest was taken without explanation to the territorial recruitment center in the city of Kremenets, where he is still being illegally detained. He was handed a military summons with a demand to report to the military commissariat at 23:00. Father Vladislav provided an official decree confirming his ministry as rector of the church in the village of Druzhba, Radyvyliv deanery, but these documents were not taken into account.

It is worth noting that this is not the first case of forced mobilization of UOC priests by the Kremenets TRC. Earlier, we reported that on October 1, 2024, in the city of Kremenets, Ternopil region, representatives of the territorial recruitment center forcibly mobilized a member of the “Sophia Brotherhood” and signatory of the “Appeal on the trial of Patriarch Kirill by Pentecost” from the “Pinchuk group”, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archpriest John Polishchuk. It is reported that Polishchuk visited the local military enlistment office to clarify his data, after which he was sent to a military medical commission and immediately sent to a training ground in Uzhhorod.