In Odessa, UOC priest sentenced to five years in prison "for justifying Russian aggression"

An appeals court in Odessa has sentenced a cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to real imprisonment for «justifying Russia’s armed aggression and inciting national hatred». The new ruling overturned the previous verdict of the court of first instance, which gave the defendant a suspended sentence.

According to the Center for Public Investigations, the Odessa Court of Appeal has reviewed the case of Archpriest Ivan Pavlichenko, a priest of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. According to the investigation materials, which include recordings of wiretaps by security services of conversations in his car, the priest «systematically promoted Kremlin narratives, commented on the war from the position of the aggressor state and shifted responsibility for Russian strikes to the Ukrainians themselves.»

«The main thing, of course, is for the war to end and for there to be no Ukropia. Because it is not Ukraine, but exactly Ukropia, that they built bandits,» he stated.

The clergyman also discussed the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons against NATO countries and quoted Russian politicians. «The task of the minimum is to reach the borders of the Soviet Union. The maximum task is to reach the borders of the Empire. And the borders of the Empire already include Poland and Finland,» he quoted Zhirinovsky as saying.

Initially, the Peresyp district court found him guilty, but released him from serving his sentence with probation. The prosecutor’s office appealed this decision. The court of appeal, agreeing with the arguments of the prosecution, overturned the previous verdict and passed a new one: five years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. The convict is also banned from holding positions in state and local government bodies for three years. In addition, he was charged 8,914 hryvnia of court costs.

We will remind, earlier we reported that since the beginning of 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine initiated more than 200 criminal proceedings against representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church «on the facts of anti-Ukrainian activity and other crimes». Dozens of clergymen, including high-ranking hierarchs, received suspicions and sentences «for working for the Russian security services, justifying aggression and destabilizing the situation in the country».