Exchange refused: SBU conducts another search of Metropolitan Theodosiy

Metropolitan Theodosiн (Snigirev). Photo: screenshot from a video by the Cherkasy Eparchy

On June 19, 2024, officers from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Cherkasy conducted another search of the residence of Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy and Kaniv. The hierarch stated on his Telegram channel that the formal reason for this fourth search was a criminal case initiated over a sermon he gave to one of the persecuted communities in the Cherkasy region. However, he suspects the real reason might be different.

"The fact is, last week, SBU officers approached me several times with the proposal to leave the country. To be exchanged as a 'prisoner of war enemy'. That exact phrase: 'prisoner of war enemy,'" the UOC hierarch explained.

When he objected, pointing out that as a UOC clergyman, he is an equal citizen of Ukraine and not an enemy, let alone a prisoner of war, the SBU officers did not respond, he said.

"They constantly tried to persuade me to agree to the exchange along with prisoners of war. They came to my house. They visited the Lebedinsky Monastery, where I served. They met with me at the diocesan administration. They loitered around the Sosnivsky District Court in Cherkasy when activists were staging provocations there, throwing themselves under cars, shouting slogans. It was then that they first proposed the exchange. After that, they visited the monastery, my home, and the diocese. It seems that the action at the court was specifically organized to push me to agree to the exchange as a prisoner of war," he explained.

The Cherkasy hierarch emphasized that he had refused their request and warned that if the pressure escalated, he would be compelled to reach out to the Ukrainian and international community to tell about its causes.

He believes that after the search, they might initiate a new criminal case against him, based on which they will try to impose a harsher preventive measure, such as a pre-trial detention center or a 24-hour house arrest, to ultimately force him into the exchange as a prisoner of war.

The Metropolitan also reported that in the court order for the search, the item listed for seizure was the Charter of the Cherkasy Diocesan Administration of the UOC. Metropolitan Theodosiy suggested that this is related to the local authorities' intentions to carry out an illegal re-registration of the cathedral of the Cherkasy Diocese. The SBU could not seize the document as it is kept in a bank vault.

"They did not find the original charter, but they found a copy and seized it. This was the only item taken during today's SBU searches," he said.

The hierarch urged the diocesan clergy not to keep any documents at home or in churches and called on all believers to intensify their prayers.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Metropolitan Jonathan (Yeletskikh), the convicted ruling bishop of the Tulchyn Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, refused to be included in the exchange fund as a prisoner of war for transfer to Russia.

Read also