Appeals court leaves Metropolitan Arseniy in pretrial detention
An appellate court hearing was held in Kryvyi Rih in the case of the abbot of Sviatohirsk Lavra.
On February 12, 2026, the Dnipro Court of Appeal in Kryvyi Rih dismissed the defense’s appeals against the January 22 decision of the Chechelivskyi District Court of Dnipro, which extended the preventive measure applied to Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk. The press service of the Sviatohirsk monastery reported this.
Metropolitan Arseniy took part in the hearing via video conference. Believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church came to the courtroom to support the hierarch with prayer and by their personal presence.
Earlier, the court of first instance extended the hierarch’s detention for 60 days – until March 22.
The attorneys asked the court to change the preventive measure to one not involving detention, insisting there were no grounds for the hierarch’s continued confinement in a pretrial detention center. However, after hearing the arguments of both the defense and the prosecution, the panel of judges left the appeals without satisfaction and upheld the first-instance ruling unchanged.
The next hearing in the Chechelivskyi District Court in the case of Metropolitan Arseniy is scheduled for February 25 at 12:00.
Sviatohirsk Lavra is calling on the faithful to pray for the imprisoned hierarch and the monastery’s brotherhood, and is also asking for support for the continued legal defense of its abbot.
As the UOJ previously reported, Member of Parliament Heorhii Mazurashu of the Servant of the People faction said earlier that the authorities are “slowly killing” Metropolitan Arseniy in the pretrial detention center, and that the accusations against him are “pulled out of thin air.”
