SBU reports suspicion against ROC Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov)

ROC Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov). Photo: TASS

The Prosecutor General's Office, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, announced suspicion against Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), who has been managing the Crimean Metropolis of the ROC since 2023. The security forces stated that the metropolitan use his status and authority to support the war and spread Kremlin propaganda.

"The hierarch described the Russian invasion as a 'terrible and forced measure,’ allegedly necessary to protect Russia, and called Ukraine a ‘projectile against Russia’ created by external forces," the Office of the Prosecutor General stated.

Investigators allege that the metropolitan portrayed the war as a “civil” conflict and claimed that external enemies had pushed Russia into the conflict. The hierarch described the goal of the military operation as “victory over Nazism and fascism” and over the “misanthropic regime” established in Ukraine. Law enforcement officials allege that the hierarch’s public statements contain calls for changing Ukraine’s government and altering its borders through a war of aggression.

“The rhetoric about ‘Nazism’ and ‘fascism,’ as well as pitting Ukrainian religious communities against each other, according to the investigation, contains signs of inciting national and religious hatred," the Prosecutor General's Office reported.

Law enforcement officers charged the hierarch under part two of Article 110 and part three of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Ukraine and the European Union had previously added Metropolitan Tikhon to their sanctions lists.

The ROC Synod appointed Metropolitan Tikhon as head of the Crimean Metropolis on October 11, 2023, replacing Metropolitan Lazarus of Simferopol and Crimea, who was retired. The metropolitan himself compared his new place of ministry to Kolyma. Earlier, on June 7, 2022, the ROC Synod transferred the Crimean eparchies of the UOC to “subordination to the Patriarch,” after which they were “united into a metropolis.” The UOC did not recognize this decision.

As the UOJ reported, Metropolitan Tikhon stated that the ROC may forgive UOC clergy who "repent for betrayal and treason".

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