Ukrainian court convicts Russian Orthodox priest in absentia for collecting humanitarian aid for Russian Armed Forces

On June 18, 2025, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Chernivtsi issued an in absentia verdict against a clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Fyodor Peredyreev, rector of the Church of All Saints in Novomoskovsk, Tula Region. The clergyman was accused of “financing the seizure of state power and changing the state border of Ukraine” by purchasing and collecting humanitarian aid for Russian Armed Forces servicemen. The Ukrainian court sentenced Peredyreev to seven years in prison with confiscation of property. This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism.

The court found that Russian citizen Fyodor Sergeyevich Peredyreev, born on December 5, 1989, organized a collection point at the All Saints Church in Novomoskovsk for so-called humanitarian aid for Russian military personnel participating in the war against Ukraine. From December 2023 to April 2024 alone, he collected various aid for them totaling almost 2 million rubles: thermal underwear, warm clothing, pea coats, food, first aid kits, bandages, diesel generators, etc.

The priest transferred these items to the 328th Regiment of the 104th Division of the Russian Armed Forces, which was stationed near the village of Kozachi Tabory in the Oleshky community of the Kherson region, and to the 9th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 18th Motorized Rifle Division of the Russian Armed Forces, which in April 2024 was stationed near the Soledar community in the Bakhmut district of the Donetsk region.

“Priest Peredyreev, in his capacity as a priest, decided to devote his life not to good deeds, but to undermining the international legal order and security of Ukraine. Instead of praying quietly within his walls and thinking about the salvation of souls, this ‘pilgrim of imperial ambitions’ chose to finance the Russian occupation forces that are destroying Ukrainian cities and villages. Peredyreev seems to profess not faith in God, but faith in imperial aggression, using the temple as a facade for criminal activity. This is further proof of how the Russian Orthodox Church is increasingly becoming an instrument of propaganda and war,” – the court ruling states.

The court found Fyodor Peredyreev guilty of committing a crime under Part 3 of Article 110-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The sentence in absentia is seven years’ imprisonment with confiscation of all property.

As previously reported, that the religious community of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the Chernivtsi-Bukovina Diocese of the UOC sent an appeal to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets with a request to intervene in the situation with the attempted seizure of the UOC Cathedral in Chernivtsi, which took place on June 17.