In Kyiv, employees of the territorial recruitment center mobilized Archdeacon Andriy Batsula, who serves at the Holy Trinity Kytaiv Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On February 20, he was taken by representatives of the TCK and sent to the Desna training center, which sparked discussion among representatives of the clergy and the public.
According to the Constitution of Ukraine, citizens have the right to refuse military service on the basis of religious beliefs. However, there is no current legislation regulating this norm, which creates legal uncertainty. As stated in Article 336 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, evasion of conscription can lead to criminal liability in the form of imprisonment for a term of three to five years.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted a decision on the reservation of clergy, which allows certain categories of clergy to be exempted from mobilization. According to Tetyana Kameristova, spokeswoman for the Rivne Regional Recruitment Center, the issue of the reservation of clergy is within the competence of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. At the same time, she emphasized that no more than 50% of clergy can be reserved from service.
The position of representatives of religious institutions is also important. Priest Petro Martyniuk of the OCU emphasizes that according to the canons of the church, clergy are forbidden to take up weapons, and even unintentional murder by a priest deprives him of the right to conduct religious services.
Currently, the issue of booking clergy, in particular representatives of the UOC-MP, remains open, and questions also arise regarding amendments to the legislation to regulate the situation when religious beliefs become an obstacle to the fulfillment of duties to the state.
