UOC Seminary Student Detained in Kyiv by Territorial Recruitment Center Staff

On August 7, 2025, in Kyiv, staff of the Territorial Recruitment Center detained Pavlo Vasylevskyi, a third-year student of the Kyiv Theological Seminary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Pavlo was returning home after the evening service at the Kytaiv Desert, where he sings on the kliros. This was reported by UOJ.

It is known that before his detention, the student was talking on the phone with his fiancée. Afterwards, he did not contact anyone for a long time, and his whereabouts remained unknown.

However, later, according to the “First Kozatsky” channel, it became known that the seminary student made contact and reported that he was at the “Desna” training center, without informing whether he was forced to sign any documents.

Earlier reports stated that a hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Luka of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopol, issued an appeal to the staff of territorial recruitment centers regarding the forced mobilization of UOC clergy. The archbishop called the mobilization of clergy not only a violation of rights but an attempt to decapitate the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.