"I am painfully ashamed for the disgraced honor of Ukraine"

On December 26, 2023, the case of Metropolitan Jonathan (Yeletskikh), sentenced by the Vinnytsia court to 5 years in prison, will be reviewed by the appellate court. In connection with this, the editorial office of the UOJ, which regularly covers this ill-fated process, offered the "scandalous" metropolitan to talk not only about the charges brought against him but also about his creative church-composer activities and his vision of church-state relations.

A short preface

The author of these lines had the opportunity to meet with Vladyka Jonathan, then a young archimandrite, in the distant 1988. At that time, in the year of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus in the fading USSR, the conditions were provided for the revival of ancient shrines in the Orthodox Church for the first time in 70 years of atheism. The main one was the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, and its first abbot was Archimandrite, and soon Bishop Jonathan (Yeletskikh) of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky.

In the Kyiv Pechersk Monastery, silent since the Khrushchev era, bells rang, monastic prayer ascended to the heavenly world, and with joy and gratitude, the people of God rushed to the ancient Pechersk hills above the Dnieper. It was then, in the Far Caves, that the "silent" relics of about 30 Pechersk saints began to abundantly stream myrrh, testifying to the favor of God. And one day, during one of the first liturgies held in the open air, the Cross of the Lord was revealed in the sky.

The First Divine Liturgy on the ruins of the Great Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra on the occasion of its 900th anniversary. August 28, 1989. The Divine Liturgy is performed by Bishop Jonathan (Yeletskikh), the first abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: Archive of Metropolitan Jonathan.

In conversation with Archimandrite Jonathan (preparing an interview for one of the republican newspapers), I, a little-churched person at the time, having never communicated with monks, was struck by the range of knowledge, culture, and some extraordinary grace of this clergyman. At that time, I did not know that I was talking to the future metropolitan, a church composer with a worldwide name, a publicist and poet, a theologian, and a fervent patriot of our holy land, who would be subjected to such absurd accusations at the end of his life.

Since then, 35 years have passed. Paradoxically and mystically, the revived and restored Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, built by monks and the people of God as a miraculous spiritual oasis, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, the cradle of monasticism in Kyivan Rus, Ukraine's main shrine, the third Lot of the Mother of God, in 2023 was sacrilegiously taken away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At the same time, its first abbot, now one of the oldest hierarchs of the UOC, Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchyn and Bratslav, who had been faithfully serving the Church of Christ and the Ukrainian people for decades, was arrested and charged with state treason in the same year.

The rotten tree theory

The doctrine of the "fruit of the poisonous tree" is a concept introduced by the Supreme Court of the United States to assess the admissibility of evidence in criminal cases. The essence of this concept is that if the source of evidence ("tree") is improper ("poisoned"), all evidence obtained with its help ("fruits") is also deemed improper. That is, it cannot be used to prove guilt.

This concept is revealed in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the context of the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

It was this doctrine that Metropolitan Jonathan's lawyers referred to during the investigative procedures and after the verdict was handed down. Since the incriminated facts against the hierarch were, by the defense's definition, forged and fabricated. Consider, for example, one of the "evidence" found. Namely, pro-Russian leaflets supposedly printed by Metropolitan Jonathan by typographic means were found in the boot of an employee of the Tulchyn diocese's chancery. The digital originals were "discovered" on the metropolitan's laptop four days after it was seized!

On August 7, 2023, the Vinnytsia court delivered a verdict. Photo: Tulchyn Diocese

At the Bishop's Residence

The bishop welcomed us hospitably. He looked tired and gaunt, his face pale, but his eyes still glowed with the same incredible kindness.

 –  Your Eminence, for the past 19 years, you have been the head of the Tulchyn Diocese of the UOC. Unexpectedly, the 75-year-old bishop, you, were visited by employees of the Vinnytsia Regional Security Service with a search of your temporary residence in Bershady and the chancery of the Tulchyn diocesan administration. As a result of the searches, the Vinnytsia city judge handed down a guilty verdict to you – 5 years of imprisonment. This, today, is the first harsh sentence for a UOC hierarch, causing a storm of protests from the Primates of the Orthodox Autocephalous Churches, a human rights Christian forum in Germany, and also prompting a condemning reaction from the well-known American lawyer of the UOC, Robert (Bob) Amsterdam, who spoke of persecution against the episcopate and clergy of our Church. Why is all this happening in Ukraine today?

 –  I do not read such insinuations from authors of libelous publications. Most likely, they are ordered. Their goal is obvious – to politically discredit the UOC and its hierarchy in one fell swoop, justify the ban on the activities of the UOC, and intimidate the persecution of priests and parishioners. The catalyst for the persecution of the canonical Church, the seizure of its monasteries and temples by extremists, was the granting of the so-called "autocephalous" tomos to the OCU, which was not even recognized by the "patriarch" Filaret Denisenko. The trial against me is one episode in the reprisal against defenders of their faith and Church.

As for the incriminated accusations, my "guilt" is built by investigators not on real facts but on fictional motives and on the criminal planting of color leaflets by an SBU employee in my residence, captured by the security camera and demonstrated by my lawyer to the audience on the "Pershy Kozatsky" channel.

As the Lord Jesus Christ said, "He who has ears, let him hear" (Matthew 13:15).

 –  Who then are those who do not want to see an undisputed violation? Do they become passive accomplices?

 –  It is obvious.

 –  Tell us, Vladyka, how did the special services informatively support the fabricated political charges against you? And what most surprised you about the actions of the investigators of the Vinnytsia branch of the SBU and the Vinnytsia "primary" judge, who sentenced you practically, as your lawyer noted, to a "life death sentence," considering your advanced age and severe incurable diseases?

 – The head of the Kyiv SBU publicly, before the trial, deliberately and confidently accused me of committing serious, "irrefutable" crimes against Ukraine, grossly violating the right to the presumption of innocence. An obvious and simple question arises - what about the SBU video recording with the planting of their employee's anti-Ukrainian leaflets, and their inclusion in the search protocol at my residence? This is a fact of the self-exposure of the SBU!

The SBU video recording, exposing the criminal actions of the Vinnytsia investigators, is a genuine video evidence. Hundreds of thousands of viewers on "Pershy Kozatsky", numerous priests, parishioners, representatives of the UN, American UOC lawyer Robert Amsterdam, and other foreign lawyers have seen this recording with corresponding comments.

My accusers also urgently need to find an explanation for the criminal planting of three files with the notorious leaflets – "evidence" – by SBU employees in my computer, seized by investigators, which appeared four days after the computer equipment was confiscated.

You ask what struck me in this judicial story? I'll answer simply and briefly: my clergy, parishioners of the diocese, and all faithful members of the UOC who followed the investigative process over the past year were struck by formalism and shameless audacity, painfully disgracing the honor and name of Ukraine, which is bleeding.

I admit that administrative pressure was exerted on the judge: the start of the final session of the primary court was suddenly postponed for two hours. Agree, it is quite symptomatic.

– Your Eminence, you are accused of being devoted to the "Russian world." However, you deliver sermons in Ukrainian in the parishes of the diocese, love and sing Ukrainian songs, and a decade ago, you translated the text of the Divine Liturgy into Ukrainian. What goal did you have in mind?

– I'll answer in a few words: the translation of the Divine Liturgy into Ukrainian had a catechetical, conceptual goal. To ensure that Orthodox youth understands the main task of their life: to be in the sanctifying grace of the Holy Church of Christ God and to live eternally in His blessed Kingdom of Heaven.

– A few words about your Chornobyl Liturgy. How was it conceived?

– I wrote several hundred church hymns. On the 30th anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy, all Ukrainian newspapers wrote about the upcoming elections of the head of state. Journalists and the media, in general, completely forgot about Chornobyl and the Chornobyl victims. It was offensive. I decided to remind them with this composition about the moral duty to the fallen heroes of the spirit. Eternal memory to them.

– Why do you think many cultural figures remain silent in the face of the threat to the UOC? What hinders them?

– Unfortunately, I assume that many are bound by irrational fear and ignorance of the Truth.

– You, along with other hierarchs, joined the international group monitoring violations in Ukraine of the universal rights and freedoms of man enshrined in UN documents, as well as monitoring attempts to completely or partially eliminate the traditional religious identity of Orthodox citizens of Ukraine. What hopes do you have for this activity?

– There are many hopes, and the information results will be in the future. The Ukrainian group includes several non-political foreign human rights societies. The main legal projects and the official statement of the Ukrainian group are ready. Their international coordination is underway.

– What would you say to your clergy and parishioners if the Lord allows you to be in bonds until the end of the Christmas fast?

– I will say to myself and to them what the Word of God and the holy venerable elders teach: "Glory to God for all: for sorrow and for joy!" And let the will be not mine, but Yours, Heavenly Father, and let Your Kingdom come!

– Thank you, dear Vladyka, for the open and honest interview.

– I thank you as well, Father Sergiy, for your uncompromising journalistic stance.