Metropolitan Ionafan Yeletskih, who belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UPC MP), ended up in Belarus after being sentenced to prison in Ukraine, and will soon arrive in Moscow.
This was reported by the Interfax agency with reference to the statement of the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to the message, "the dismissal of the metropolitan became possible thanks to the petition of the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, and the hierarch will arrive in Moscow in the near future."
On June 23, a video of the service from the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in Minsk appeared, Metropolitan Ionaphan was present at the service.
According to Russian mass media, Pope Francis facilitated the release of Metropolitan Ionaphan of Tulchyn and Bratslav at the request of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. This was reported to TASS by the head of the World Union of Old Believers, Leonid Sevastyanov.
As reported, according to the materials of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Metropolitan of the UOC MP - the head of the Tulchyna Diocese in the Vinnytsia region, Ionafan (Yelecki), who publicly justified Russian armed aggression against Ukraine, was convicted.
In particular, he was convicted of crimes stipulated by the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
Part 2 of Art.
109 (actions aimed at the violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or at the seizure of state power); Part 1 of Art.
110 (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine); Part 2 of Art.
161 (violation of the equality of citizens depending on their racial, national, regional belonging, religious beliefs, disability and on other grounds); Part 3 of Art. 436-2 (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).
According to the investigation materials, the suspect distributed propaganda leaflets among the faithful, calling for the seizure of power and the change of the borders of the state border of Ukraine.
And on one of the websites of the Russian Orthodox Church, he posted publications in support of the Russian occupiers and their war crimes.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, in connection with the sentencing of Metropolitan Ionafan of the Tulchyn and Bratslav UOC MP, stated that "the decision of the court is unlawful", and Ionafan, "despite everything, remained faithful to his Church and brothers in the faith of Christ".
On August 7, 2023, the Vinnytsia Court found the hierarch guilty under four articles of the Criminal Code, which relate to the distribution of materials calling for violent changes in the constitutional order, the state border of Ukraine, and denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
On April 10, 2024, a clergyman who was sentenced in Ukraine to five years in prison with confiscation of property for denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and distributing materials with calls for changing the borders of the territory of Ukraine, gave voluntary consent to his exchange as a prisoner of war and handover to representatives of Russia. The United Center for Coordination of the Search and Release of Prisoners of War, Persons Illegally Deprived of Liberty as a Result of Aggression against Ukraine, under the Security Service of Ukraine, included the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the lists for exchange.
However, at the court session on June 12, the accused cleric changed his position dramatically. He said that he is against being transferred to the Russian side as a prisoner of war, as he does not consider himself one. At the same time, he admitted: on April 10, he personally wrote the application for transfer for exchange, but now he has changed his mind. And submitted a new statement to the court in which he objected to his exchange as a prisoner of war.
