Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has exchanged at least four priests of the UOC-MP for prisoners.
This was reported by the CHESNO movement.
There is no official data on this, but there is information about the exchange from open sources. At the same time, law enforcement officers opened about 70 criminal proceedings against representatives of the UOC (MP), as well as 16 against metropolitans. The crimes include 20 cases of high treason and collaboration. 26 were notified of suspicion, and 19 received court sentences.
In June, the head of the Tulchyn Diocese of the UOC (MP), Jonathan Anatoliy Yeleckykh, was exchanged for several Ukrainian prisoners. Before that, he refused to be exchanged. According to media reports, Patriarch Kirill Hundyayev of the Russian Orthodox Church sent an official request for his exchange.
Similarly, Mykola Zakroyets, the rector of St George's Church of the UOC (MP) in Yampil, Sumy Region, was released from punishment due to a court decision to transfer him for exchange as a prisoner of war. Oleksandr Lunyehov, rector of the Church of St John the Merciful of the Dnipro Diocese of the UOC (MP), who was convicted of justifying Russia's armed aggression, was also exchanged.
This is not the first time such exchanges have taken place. In 2023, Andriy Pavlenko, rector of the Lysychansk St Tykhvyn Church of the UOC-MP, convicted of high treason, was exchanged for 28 Ukrainian servicemen.