SBU detains OCU "priest" for corruption

The SBU detaining an OCU employee. Photo: SBU

On May 16, 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained "the head of one of the communities in the Rivne region, who demanded a bribe for resolving a land issue". The press service of the security forces did not disclose the name of the detained person, but the UOJ has found out that the individual in question is Mykhailo Oliinyk, the head of the Zoria territorial community in the Rivne region. Oliinyk is also a non-clerical "priest" of the OCU.

The SBU claims that Oliinyk, "using his official position, promised a local entrepreneur, in exchange for a certain monetary reward, to help coordinate a land development project for the rental of a land plot for economic activities. The SBU and National Police officers detained the suspect in the act while receiving 7,500 US dollars."

Meanwhile, the 4vlada resource notes that Oliinyk has been under investigation since 2016, when, while holding his current position, he took a bribe of UAH 500,000. Over 8 years, the OCU cleric has been tried under part 4 of article 368 of the Criminal Code for extortion and receiving improper benefits in a particularly large amount. In 2025, Oliinyk is expected to be sentenced. Now, a new case is being opened against him under Part 3 of Article 368.

The publication recalls that after Oliinyk's first arrest in 2016, "Metropolitan" Ilarion not only removed him from his position but also published a statement calling his cleric a "Judas": "Such actions, especially from a person appointed as a spiritual guide, are unacceptable and intolerable, and such a person resembles Judas Iscariot. For Judas sold the Savior for money, and he, for money and material goods, betrays his native land and his fellow countrymen. The retribution for such people will be the same as for Judas – shame and eternal condemnation."

However, despite this, Oliinyk "served" on November 8, 2024, at the St. Michael’s Church of the OCU in the village of Starozhukiv alongside the same "Metropolitan" Ilarion Protsyk of Rivne.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that, according to Dumenko, Judas hanged himself because of corruption.

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