Luhansk Metropolitan Panteleimon sentenced in absentia on charges of “collaboration”

On June 18, 2025, the Desniansky District Court of Chernihiv found Metropolitan Panteleimon of Luhansk and Alchevsk, who heads the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Synodal Department for Family Affairs, guilty of “committing a number of criminal offenses.” The court sentenced him in absentia to 11 years of imprisonment, banned him from holding any positions in religious organizations for 13 years, and ordered the confiscation of all his assets. The decision was published on Facebook by Serhii Shumylo.

According to the court ruling, the main prison term will begin upon the cleric’s actual detention once the verdict comes into legal force. The additional punishment — a ban on holding positions in religious institutions — will take effect after the completion of the prison sentence.

The charges were based on the Metropolitan’s alleged “collaborative activities” in Russian-occupied territories, public support for “the Russian Federation’s military aggression against Ukraine,” and “cooperation with the occupying authorities.”

“Fully aware of the situation and acting deliberately to support the actions and decisions of the Russian Federation as an aggressor state, Vasyl D. Povoroznyuk on September 30, 2022, attended — as an invited guest — a ‘solemn session’ in Moscow, during which ‘agreements’ were signed on the annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions to the Russian Federation. During the event, Povoroznyuk wore clerical vestments as a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and by his public presence, he effectively and nonverbally endorsed the annexation. He also, by personal example, encouraged the faithful of the Luhansk Diocese and the broader UOC to support these illegal actions and decisions of the Russian Federation,” the court ruling stated.

Earlier, on June 4, 2025, the Dnipro Court of Appeal rejected a complaint from the lawyers of Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk against the Sloviansk City Court’s decision to extend his pre-trial detention. He has been held in Dnipro’s pre-trial detention center since April 25, 2024. His arrest was extended until the end of July this year.