Ukraine | The court ordered Metropolitan Pavlo to house arrest for two months

of Kiev The district court of the Shevchenkivskyi region has ordered a metropolitan acting under the Moscow Patriarchate Pavlon to two months of house arrest. About that tells among others, the Ukrainska Pravda magazine.

Metropolitan Pavlo’s place of business has been in the Kiev cave monastery, or the Pešersk Lavra. He is suspected of hate speech against various ethnic groups and of supporting Russia’s war of aggression.

Ukraine’s national security service SBU has investigated the metropolitan’s activities. The SBU previously also searched his apartment.

of the SBU according to Metropolitan Pavlo has accepted Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and expressed his negative attitude towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (PTsU), which was recognized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople as independent in 2018.

Another Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UPTs) operated under the Moscow Patriarchate. It announced in May last year that it was severing ties with its parent church, the Russian Orthodox Church, because of the war, but its true status has remained disputed.

The district court ordered Metropolitan Pavlo to be placed under house arrest, as the prosecutors believe it is possible that he would try to escape from Kyiv, put pressure on witnesses or destroy evidence.

Metropolitan Pavlo’s defense attorneys are demanding that the sentence be reduced. He himself considered the doubts to be “political”.

“I have not done anything that I am accused of. I have always opposed aggression. I am now in Ukraine. This is my country,” he said.