Earlier, we reported that the public organization “Community of Olenivka,” which includes relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, published a statement calling for the exchange of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, for Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen who are being held captive by the Russian side. The organization believes that the deprivation of citizenship of the Primate of the UOC “opens up the possibility for his exchange.”
Russian Foreign Ministry: Kiev uses UOC priests as "exchange fund" for prisoner exchange
The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the Ukrainian authorities of systematically detaining clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in order to use them in prisoner-of-war exchanges. According to the ministry, this is part of religious repression and a strategy to replenish the so-called “exchange fund”.
According to the press service of the ministry, this statement was made by Mikhail Melekh, special representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry for cooperation in ensuring the right to freedom of religion. According to him, after forceful methods of forcing believers to convert to the OCU failed to produce the expected results, the Kiev authorities developed a legal mechanism to ban the UOC. The basis for this, according to the diplomat, was the law “On Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations” adopted in 2024. Melekh also noted that Ukrainian officials are looking for evidence of the UOC’s ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and are conducting an “inventory of holy relics” offensive to believers.
According to a statement by a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, the methodology of “neutralizing” the clergy includes detaining priests suspected of links to Russian citizens and checking their cell phones. As a condition for their release, they are offered a “voluntary” transfer to the OCU. Otherwise, according to Melekh, the arrested clerics are included in lists for prisoner-of-war exchange.
“Given the significant numerical superiority of Ukrainian POWs over Russian POWs, the Zelensky regime proceeds from the formula of exchanging one allegedly pro-Russian priest for several AFU POWs,” the diplomat concluded.
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