TRC mobilizes 24-year-old UOC hieromonk on his way to study in Athens

Hieromonk Viktor (Denysov). Photo: the priest's Facebook

Hieromonk Viktor (Denysov) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church said he was detained by officers of the Khmelnytskyi Territorial Recruitment Center (TRC) and subsequently mobilized. He wrote about the incident on Facebook.

According to the priest, on September 28, 2026, he was traveling to study at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he is a student. He said he had all the necessary documents with him. He was taken off his flight along with a delegation of priests studying at Greek universities.

The hieromonk said he was told that the purpose of his detention was to issue him a referral for a military medical examination. According to him, the reason given was that the medical commission’s decision recorded in the Reserve+ database did not meet certain standards.

He said the TRC officers did not identify themselves or show any documents, and no police officers were present. At the TRC, he said, the medical examination was arranged in about 10 minutes and he was declared fit for military service, although he maintains that he required a thorough medical examination.

The hieromonk said he was held at the TRC for nearly 24 hours, where officers shouted at and threatened him, while his phone was confiscated immediately. According to him, servicemen later gave him a phone to call the police at 102, but his rights were not protected.

The following day, he wrote, a recruiter helped arrange his assignment to the 8th Special Operations Regiment.

“Now I am not just a priest and a monk – I am also a serviceman,” Viktor (Denysov) wrote. He added: “I will not take up arms because the canons of the Church forbid me to do so.”

The hieromonk summed up what happened to him this way: “I was on my way to Greece to pursue my education. Instead, I ended up in the Ukrainian army.”

As the UOJ previously reported, a UOC hieromonk was seized by the TRC on his birthday.

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