Odesa UOC priest sentenced to 5 years in prison "for justifying RF aggression”

Archpriest Ioann Pavlichenko. Photo: UOJ

The Court of Appeal in Odesa has sentenced a cleric of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Ioann Pavlichenko, to actual imprisonment, overturning the previous ruling of the first-instance court, which had given the priest a suspended sentence. This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

According to investigators, Archpriest Ioann Pavlichenko, a cleric of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, was convicted on charges of “justifying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation” and “inciting religious and national hatred.” The case materials are based, among other things, on audio recordings made by security services inside the priest’s car.

The investigation claims that in private conversations the priest criticized the Ukrainian government, discussed the progress of the war, quoted Russian politicians, and expressed doubts about the official position of Kyiv. These statements, according to “expert conclusions,” were deemed to be “propaganda of Kremlin narratives.”

The Peresypsky District Court had earlier found the archpriest guilty but gave him a suspended sentence. After the prosecution appealed, the appellate court overturned that ruling and imposed a stricter one: five years of imprisonment with confiscation of property, as well as a three-year ban on holding positions in state institutions.

As the UOJ reported, on August 12, 2025, the SBU announced the detention of two clerics of the Odesa Eparchy of the UOC who were charged with similar offenses. The agency claimed that one of them – Archpriest Ioann Pavlichenko – had “glorified representatives of the Russian Federation” in conversations with parishioners and criticized believers of other confessions.

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