On Saturday morning, Metropolitan Ionafan Yeletskyh of Tulchyn and Bratslav of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, who was convicted in Ukraine, was taken to the border with Belarus, where he was handed over to representatives of Russia.
This was reported by sources of LB.ua.
At the border, Ionafan was met by a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Nikolay Balashov.
According to the sources, the value of Yeletskyh is that he was exchanged for several prisoners of war of Ukrainian defenders held in Russia. The Russian side specifically wanted to take the metropolitan away. In particular, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill Gundyayev, made an official appeal.
Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church has already stated that Metropolitan Yeletskyh, who was convicted in Ukraine, "has been released and will soon arrive in Moscow". On 23 June, a video of the service from the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in Minsk was released, with Ionafan attending the service.
According to Russian media reports, Pope Francis contributed to Jonafan's release.