Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Tikhon (Georgy Shevkunov), who supports Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and justifies the occupiers’ war crimes, has been served with a notice of suspicion.
The Security Service reported this.
According to the investigation, Tikhon is Putin’s chief spiritual adviser and one of the leading ideologues of the Kremlin regime. He was among the first to back Russia’s full-scale invasion and called for support for the armed groups of the aggressor state.
In 2023, he was appointed head of the so-called Crimean Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church on the territory of the Ukrainian peninsula. In this role, the cleric used the diocese’s resources to comprehensively spread “rashism” in the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine.
In addition, Tikhon regularly takes part in public appearances in which he justifies the shelling of Ukrainian cities and agitates for the further occupation of our country’s entire territory.
The SBU initiated a specialist examination, which confirmed instances of the Russian metropolitan’s information-subversive activities in Russia’s interests.
On the basis of the evidence gathered, SBU investigators, in absentia, served Tikhon with a notice of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: encroachment on Ukraine’s territorial integrity and inviolability; and justifying, recognising as lawful, or denying the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as glorifying its participants).