Metropolitan Arseniy: I was pressured to join the OCU

Metropolitan Arseniy before the new imprisonment. Photo: Sviatohirsk Lavra

The Sviatohirsk Lavra has published Metropolitan Arseniy’s final statement before the court ruling on the preventive measure on November 3, 2025. Despite his critical health condition – his blood pressure reached 200 over 110 – the hierarch clearly expressed his position.

“I didn’t flee anywhere. Since 2014, I could have fled. I was pressured to join the OCU. Back in 2015, they called me a colonel of the FSB and wrote that Yanukovych was hiding with me and that we supposedly concealed his money… They wrote all sorts of nonsense!” said Metropolitan Arseniy.

He emphasized that in 33 years of service in Ukraine, he has never abandoned his flock and has no intention of doing so. “I was and remain a metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he stated.

The hierarch reminded that ten members of parliament had offered to stand surety for him, that servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine support him, and that thousands of people have expressed solidarity. “During all these days, not a single person, not even a paid one, stood outside the court with a poster against me,” he noted.

In his address, Metropolitan Arseniy also spoke of harsh detention conditions and the denial of medical care. His attempted hospitalization was refused, and the doctor was threatened with dismissal.

“I do not admit guilt. There is none. Everything is fabricated, everything is imagined,” the hierarch repeated, concluding his statement.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Metropolitan Arseniy had once again been placed behind bars.

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