SBU сharges editor-in-chief of ROC's Spas TV channel, Korchevnikov

Boris Korchevnikov. Photo: Spas

On March 19, 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced in absentia that it had filed charges against Boris Korchevnikov, the editor-in-chief of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Spas TV channel.

According to the SBU, Spas is "one of the Kremlin's mouthpieces, spreading propaganda primarily to the internal audience of the aggressor state."

The SBU documented that Korchevnikov "repeatedly justified Russia’s full-scale invasion and the war crimes of Russian forces."

Additionally, according to the SBU’s statement, Korchevnikov "publicly called for the capture of all Ukrainian territory and the physical destruction of Ukrainian citizens." It was also recorded that he illegally crossed Ukraine’s border multiple times outside official checkpoints in 2022–2023.

SBU investigators have formally charged Korchevnikov in absentia under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

▪ Part 2 of Article 110 (Encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine);

▪ Part 3 of Article 436-2 (Justification, recognition as lawful, denial of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, and glorification of its participants, committed using mass media);

▪ Part 2 of Article 332-2 (Illegal crossing of Ukraine’s state border).

The investigation was conducted under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the SBU had also charged former Russian Orthodox Church cleric Ivan Okhlobystin.

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