Metropolitan Arseny, Vicar of Svyatogorsk Lavra, requires urgent heart surgery

The state of health of Metropolitan Arseny, vicar of the Holy Assumption Svyatogorsk Lavra, who has been in pre-trial detention since April 2024, has sharply deteriorated. Doctors insist on the need for urgent heart surgery. This is happening against the background of the ongoing trial, which, according to the defense side, is accompanied by procedural violations and ignoring the state of health of the hierarch.

According to the official website of the Holy Assumption Svyatogorsk Lavra, on September 30, 2024 Metropolitan Arseny was taken to one of the hospitals of the city of Dnipro for examination of the heart and blood vessels. According to the results of the examination, the doctor-arrhythmologist stated the need for immediate surgical intervention. The doctors also recommended a comprehensive checkup with specialists of other profiles.

The deterioration of health occurred against the background of court hearings. on October 1, the court rejected the lawyers’ application for recusal of the presiding judge Tatyana Haustova. The defense accuses the judge of gross violation of the law, claiming that she sent a letter to the pre-trial detention center about the Metropolitan’s continued detention, despite the fact that the term of restraint expired on September 29. During the hearing on October 1, the metropolitan became ill, and after persistent requests from his lawyers, the hearing was postponed to October 3.

It is emphasized that despite the expiration of the previous preventive measure on September 29, Metropolitan Arseniy continues to remain in Dnipro SIZO without a new court decision that would legitimately extend his arrest. At the same time, the consideration of the appeal against the preventive measure in the Dnipro Court of Appeal is scheduled only for October 16.

The source also recalls that this is not the first time that complaints about the hierarch’s ill health during the sessions are ignored. In addition, it is alleged that his health was undermined by numerous convoys from the pre-trial detention center to the court in inappropriate conditions (in the so-called «glass»), which took place from mid-July to the end of September 2024.

We will remind, on September 10, 2025, Slavyansk city district court of Donetsk region held another preparatory hearing on the case of the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Sviatogorsk Arseniy. During the hearing, the judges allowed the hierarch to undergo medical examination and treatment in the pre-trial detention center.