Source: www.forum18.org
Date: April 8, 2024
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
More than 10 months after the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine's
Zaporizhzhia Region disappeared Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Fr
Kostiantyn Maksimov, the occupation forces' Regional Prosecutor's Office
announced that he is facing criminal trial on "espionage" charges. If
convicted, the 40-year-old priest faces a prison term of 10 to 12 years.
Russian occupation forces disappeared Fr Kostiantyn in May 2023. He is
among multiple religious leaders from various religious communities the
Russian occupation forces have killed, tortured, and disappeared (see
below).
Fr Kostiantyn is being tried under Article 276 ("Espionage") of the Russian
Criminal Code. (Russia has illegally imposed its Criminal and
Administrative Codes on the parts of Ukraine it has illegally annexed.)
"This is terrible!" another local Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest,
Fr Vladimir Saviisky, who knew Fr Kostiantyn, told Forum 18. "But this was
to be expected. The Russians threatened me with this also. Had they not
deported me, I would have been sitting next to him in a prison cell." Fr
Vladimir opposed the May 2023 Russian Orthodox Church takeover of the UOC's
Berdyansk Diocese, and was force to flee to Ukrainian government-held
territory (see below).
Russian occupation forces have a record of fabricating false charges
against those they dislike. Two Greek Catholic priests - Fr Ivan Levytsky
and Fr Bohdan Heleta – were disappeared in November 2022. Now in 2024
they appear to be facing criminal trial under false charges related to
weapons, explosives, and allegedly "extremist" texts the Russian occupation
forces claim to have found. The Greek Catholic Exarchate told Forum 18 it
has had no recent news on the priests (see below).
Fr Kostiantyn served as priest of the UOC's Church of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Tokmak in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Region.
Russian occupation forces detained him in the southern town of Chongar when
he attempted to cross the administrative boundary with the occupied
Ukrainian territory of Crimea in May 2023 (see below).
Artyom Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious Organisations
Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political
Communications and Information Policy Department, claimed to Forum 18 in
October 2023 that Fr Kostiantyn had not wanted the Berdyansk Diocese of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to move to be an integral part of the
Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church took over the Diocese
in May 2023 (see below).
Sharlay did not answer his phone on 8 April 2024 (see below).
The occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Region Prosecutor's Office said Fr
Kostiantyn's trial is being held at the Russian Zaporizhzhia Regional Court
in Melitopol. However, Yelena Shapovalova, the head of the Bar Association
in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Region, said the trial will be
held at the Crimean Supreme Court in Simferopol (see below).
As of 8 April, the Crimean Supreme Court does not list any trial for Fr
Kostiantyn on its website.
Vladimir Polukhin, the Russian-installed head of Zaporizhzhia Regional
Court, did not immediately respond to Forum 18's questions:
- When Fr Kostiantyn's trial began or is due to begin;
- Who the judge in the case is;
- Who Fr Kostiantyn's lawyer is (see below).
An official at the occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Regional Prosecutor's
Office told Forum 18 he did not know who the investigator or prosecutor was
in the case, who the judge is, whether the trial has already begun, or
where Fr Kostiantyn is (see below).
Asked if Fr Kostiantyn has a lawyer, the Prosecutor's Office official said
"of course". He said he did not know the lawyer's name or if he was chosen
by Fr Kostiantyn or assigned to the case. Yelena Shapovalova said Fr
Kostiantyn had been assigned a lawyer during the pre-trial investigation,
but declined to name the lawyer (see below).
Meanwhile, after holding them in a detention centre in Russia's Rostov
Region, Russia has deported two Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) priests
from the occupied Ukrainian Donetsk Region - Fr Khristofor Khrimli and Fr
Andri Chui. Russia deported Fr Khristofor to Georgia in February and Fr
Andri in March. The occupation forces' Donetsk Region court had found both
guilty of "illegal missionary activity" in September 2023, fined them and
ordered their deportation from the Russian Federation (see forthcoming
F18News article).
Russian occupation officials had – as with UOC priest Fr Vladimir - tried
to pressure Fr Khristofor and Fr Andri to transfer from the OCU to the
Russian Orthodox Church.
UOC priest's trial for alleged "espionage"
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov is facing
criminal trial under the Russian Criminal Code for alleged "espionage," the
Russian Prosecutor's Office in the occupied part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia
Region announced on its website on 29 March 2024. It says the trial is
taking place at the Russian Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in the occupied
city of Melitopol. It did not say when the trial is starting.
The 40-year-old Fr Fr Kostiantyn was disappeared by Russian occupation
forces (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Multiple religious leaders from various religious communities under Russian
occupation have been killed
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
disappeared (https://www.forum18.org/archi
occupation forces.
The 40-year-old Fr Kostiantyn faces charges under Article 276 of the
Russian Criminal Code ("Espionage"). This carries a prison term of 10 to 12
years.
It is illegal under international law for Russia to enforce its own laws on
occupied Ukrainian territory, as Russia is required to leave Ukrainian law
in force
(https://ihl-databases.icrc.or
The Russian-occupied or partially-occupied regions of Ukraine – including
Zaporizhzhia where Fr Kostiantyn is facing prosecution - which Russia
illegally claimed to have annexed
(https://news.un.org/en/story/
punishments under Russia's Criminal and Administrative Codes
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
courts which Russia controls.
Artyom Sharlay, the head of the Russian occupiers' Religious Organisations
Department at Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political
Communications and Information Policy Department, told Forum 18 in October
2023 that Fr Kostiantyn had not wanted the Berdyansk Diocese of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to move to be an integral part of the
Russian Orthodox Church
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Sharlay did not explain why his claims about Fr Kostiantyn's views on the
affiliation of his Diocese could justify the occupation forces' enforced
disappearance of him.
Prosecutor's Office claims
The Russian occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Region Prosecutor's Office
claims that in Tokmak between April 2022 and February 2023, Fr Kostiantyn
"using an Internet messenger, transmitted to an employee of the Ukrainian
security service information with the coordinates of the deployment of
Russian air defence technical equipment located in the city and district".
The Prosecutor's Office announcement gave no evidence for its claims and
made no reference to Fr Kostiantyn's status as a priest.
"The accomplice of the Ukrainian special services was caught transferring
confidential data to his overseers in Kyiv," local pro-Russian politician
Vladimir Rogov claimed on his Telegram channel on 31 March 2024. "The
information leak threatened the security of Russia and all residents of the
Zaporizhzhia Region."
Russian occupation forces have a record of fabricating false charges
against those they dislike. Two Greek Catholic priests - Fr Ivan Levytsky
and Fr Bohdan Heleta – were disappeared in Berdyansk
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Region in November 2022.
Both priests now in 2024 appear to be facing criminal trial
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
related to weapons, explosives, and allegedly "extremist" texts the Russian
occupation forces claim to have found in Berdyansk's Church of the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
The Donetsk Exarchate of the Greek Catholic Church – to which Fr Ivan and
Fr Bohdan belong – told Forum 18 on 8 April that there has been no news
of the two priests.
The official who answered the phone at the occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia
Region Prosecutor's Office – who did not give his name – said he did
not know who the investigator or prosecutor was in the case, who the judge
is, whether the trial has already begun, or where Fr Kostiantyn is. "We
have many cases," he told Forum 18 from Melitopol on 4 April.
Asked if Fr Kostiantyn has a lawyer, the Prosecutor's Office official said
"of course". He said he did not know the lawyer's name or if he was chosen
by Fr Kostiantyn or assigned to the case. "We have no greater rights than
the defence side," the official claimed. "Everything will be decided by the
court."
Yelena Shapovalova, the head of the Bar Association in the Russian-occupied
part of Zaporizhzhia Region, says the Russian authorities appointed a
lawyer for Fr Kostiantyn during the pre-trial investigation. "That period
has now ended and the lawyer's work thus came to an end," she told Forum 18
from Melitopol on 8 April. She declined to name the lawyer.
Fr Kostiantyn's relatives did not sign an agreement with any lawyer that
they had chosen for the pre-trial investigation, Shapovalova added.
Shapovalova said Fr Kostiantyn had been held at the temporary holding
centre in Melitopol while the pre-trial investigation was underway. She
declined to say where he is now.
The duty official at the Russian Investigative Committee for the occupied
part of Zaporizhzhia Region, who did not give his name, refused to say if
its investigators had prepared the criminal case against Fr Kostiantyn. "We
give no information by phone on individual case," the official told Forum
18 from Melitopol on 8 April. "Still less to people who have no legal right
to know."
"This is terrible!" another local UOC priest, Fr Vladimir Saviisky, who
knew Fr Kostiantyn, told Forum 18 on 4 April. "But this was to be expected.
The Russians threatened me with this also. Had they not deported me, I
would have been sitting next to him in a prison cell."
Fr Vladimir was pressured by Russian occupation forces to support the
Russian Orthodox Church's takeover of the UOC's Berdyansk Diocese (see
below).
Trial in Melitopol or Simferopol?
The occupation forces' Zaporizhzhia Region Prosecutor's Office said the
criminal case against Fr Kostiantyn had been handed to the Russian
Zaporizhzhia Regional Court in Melitopol.
However, Yelena Shapovalova of the Bar Association in the Russian-occupied
part of Zaporizhzhia Region said Fr Kostiantyn's trial would be held not at
the Russian Zaporizhzhia Regional Court but at the Crimean Supreme Court in
Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. "The court here does not hear such
cases," she told Forum 18.
As of 8 April, the Crimean Supreme Court does not list any trial for Fr
Kostiantyn on its website.
The Russian occupation forces brought in Vladimir Polukhin from the Russian
city of Nizhny Novgorod in June 2023 to head the Russian Zaporizhzhia
Regional Court. Forum 18 wrote to him on the morning of 8 April 2024 local
time to ask:
- When Fr Kostiantyn's trial began or is due to begin;
- Who the judge in the case is;
- Who Fr Kostiantyn's lawyer is.
Forum 18 received no response by the end of the working day in Melitopol of
8 April.
Seized and put on trial for opposing Russian diocese takeover?
Since 2021, Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov, a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (UOC), has been serving in the Church of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Tokmak in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Region.
Russian occupation forces detained Fr Kostiantyn in the southern town of
Chongar (https://www.forum18.org/archi
attempted to cross the administrative boundary with the occupied Ukrainian
territory of Crimea on 16 May 2023.
Sharlay of the Russian occupiers' Religious Organisations Department at
Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration's Social and Political Communications
and Information Policy Department, did not answer his phone each time Forum
18 called on 8 April 2024.
In October 2023, Sharlay would not say where Fr Kostiantyn was. "I have not
heard that he's left [the Russian-occupied territories]," Sharlay told
Forum 18 from Melitopol in October 2023
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
[as a priest]," he added.
Sharlay also claimed that Fr Kostiantyn had not wanted the Berdyansk
Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to move to be an integral
part of the Russian Orthodox Church. Sharlay did not explain why his claims
about Fr Kostiantyn's views on the affiliation of his Diocese
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
occupation forces' enforced disappearance of him.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priests disappeared, pressured to transfer
to ROC
Other Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priests have also been disappeared by
the occupation forces. Fr Ihor Novosilsky was priest of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church (UOC) parish of Holy Princess Olha in the village of
Tokarivka in Kherson Region. In August 2022 he was arrested and held in
Kherson Investigation Prison
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
was tortured. After eight months he was released in May 2023, after which
he went to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priests have also faced pressure from the
occupation forces to transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church. Fr Vladimir
Saviisky was priest of St Nicholas Church in Primorsk, a town on the Azov
Sea in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Region which Russian occupation forces seized
in late February 2022.
Fr Vladimir continued to lead prayers in church for Ukraine, and after
multiple raids and arrests by Russian occupation forces they pressured him
to join calls (https://www.forum18.org/archi
April 2023 for the transfer of the Berdyansk Diocese from the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) to come directly under
the Russian Orthodox Church.
After the 16 May 2023 takeover by the Russian Orthodox Church of the UOC
Berdyansk Diocese, Fr Vladimir and other clergy were told not to
commemorate in the liturgy the head of the UOC Metropolitan Onufry
(Berezovsky). The takeover took place just days before Fr Kostiantyn
Maksimov was seized (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russian occupation forces "banned us from serving in the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (UOC)," Fr Vladimir told Current Time. "They told us: 'Commemorate
only the patriarch [Kirill] and the new bishop whom Moscow sent, cooperate
with the authorities - and everything will be fine with you, manna will
fall from heaven.' They asked us to tell the people in the church to stop
resisting and start thinking differently."
Fr Vladimir complained of constant pressure. "The seventh time such an
'interrogation' occurred was when I refused to sign a petition
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russian Orthodox Church."
Later in May 2023, Russian soldiers came to Fr Vladimir's home at 11 pm,
telling him: "Take off your cross and cassock." Fr Vladimir refused. "They
drove me around the city, demanding that I accept this decision of the
Moscow Synod that the Berdyansk Diocese had now transferred to the Russian
Orthodox Church. I said that I remain a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church (UOC), I am a Ukrainian priest. I have a Metropolitan in Kyiv - His
Beatitude Onufry."
After people warned Fr Vladimir that he faced being stripped of his
priestly office and then jailed for his pro-Ukrainian views, he reluctantly
on 1 June 2023 left for Ukrainian government-controlled territory
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Russian officials' "great amount of work" to support Russian takeover of
UOC diocese
A meeting of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration,
chaired by the Russian-imposed governor Yevgeny Balitsky, praised the
"halting of the work of religious sects which had taken part in organising
mass disorder and anti-Russian activity", the governor's website noted on
26 February.
The meeting also noted that "thanks to the great amount of work of the
internal policy block of Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration, assistance
was provided to the Berdyansk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in
the transition to the direct control of the Russian Orthodox Church".
The meeting also noted that "assistance was provided to the religious
communities of Evangelical Christian Baptists in integrating into
all-Russian structures".
The Russian occupation authorities try to stop religious communities having
any connection with oversight bodies in government-held Ukraine, insisting
they must join Russian-based structures or be independent.
Russian-imposed Governor Balitsky banned four religious communities
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
parts of Zaporizhzhia Region in December 2022: the Greek Catholic Church,
Grace Protestant Church, Melitopol Christian Church, and Word of Life
Protestant Church. Yevgeny accused these Churches of links with foreign
"special services" and ordered all their property seized. (END)
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Occupied
Ukraine (https://www.forum18.org/archi
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