Court hearings on Metropolitan Arseny postponed due to power and communication problems

Several court hearings in the case of Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatogorsk, Vicar of the Sviatogorsk Lavra, scheduled for December 22-30, 2025, have been postponed. The main reasons were large-scale power outages, frequent air raids in Ukraine and the resulting difficulties with the full participation of defense attorneys. As a result, the next hearings in the Chechelovsky district and Dnipro appellate courts are scheduled for January 5, 2026.

According to the Telegram-channel of Sviatogorsk Lavra, Metropolitan Arseniy participated in all hearings by video conference. He was invariably supported by the faithful of the Dnipropetrovsk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However, the full participation of the defense in the process was significantly hampered by external circumstances: due to power outages in different regions of Ukraine and frequent air raids, the lawyers were not always able to join the hearings online. The defense lawyers could not attend all the hearings in person either, as the trials are held in Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih, and not all members of the defense lawyers’ group live in Dnipropetrovsk region.

In particular, the preparatory hearing of the Chechelovsky District Court of Dnipro, scheduled for December 22, practically did not take place and was postponed to December 26. However, even on that day it was not possible to ensure communication with all of the vladyka’s defenders: because of the next air raid and electricity problems, only one lawyer was able to participate in the hearing. Metropolitan Arseny stated that he wanted to see all his defenders, so the hearing was postponed to December 30. But the situation was repeated again, and the meeting could not be held in full again. As a result, the next hearing in the Chechelovsky court was scheduled for 14:00 on January 5, 2026.

Last week, namely on December 24, there was also supposed to be a hearing of the Dniprovsky Court of Appeal (Krivoy Rog) to consider appeals against the decision of the Chechelovsky District Court of December 6 to extend the detention of Lord Arseniy for 60 days. This hearing was also postponed because one of the lawyers filed an addendum to the appeal, and the prosecution and the court need time to familiarize themselves with the new case materials. The appeal is now scheduled to be heard at 10:00 a.m. on January 5, 2026.

Recall that on December 15, 2025, the judge allowed Metropolitan Arseny to participate in the court sessions of the Chechelovsky Court via video link. This decision was made due to the serious state of health of the Metropolitan, who finds it difficult to be escorted to the courtroom, especially since court hearings are frequent.