Top Ukraine cleric pleads with Starmer for help over Zelensky’s Orthodox church crackdown

Sir Keir Starmer has come under pressure to quickly appoint an envoy for religious freedom after frustration over the delay to replace former Tory MP Fiona Bruce.

The row has broken out as a leading Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest has appealed to the UK for help in urging President Volodymyr Zelensky to end his crackdown on the church and priests in his country.

Metropolitan Arseniy, the abbot of the Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, was arrested over suspicions he was “disseminating information about the movement or location of armed forces” to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But he has claimed that it is part of a wider persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by Mr Zelensky’s government in the current war.

He has spoken exclusively to The Independent urging the UK to use its influence to stop the persecution of his church.

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The issue was raised at a recent international conference in Berlin and has already seen concern raised by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, as well as the Foreign Office (FCDO) which has previously confirmed it is monitoring the situation in Ukraine.

However, because the UK has yet to appoint a new envoy for religious freedom, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith criticised the government for not having a presence at the conference in Berlin.

He said: “Keir Starmer promised that ‘Labour will be a champion of religious freedom’. But after more than 100 days in office, he has still not appointed a special envoy on freedom of religion or belief.

“As a result, only last week, at an international conference in Berlin on this vital matter, attended by senior figures from 38 countries, the UK went unrepresented at a ministerial level. Our presence and our voice has never been more needed. All over the world there are growing numbers of threats to this most fundamental of human rights.”

A Downing Street spokesperson said an appointment would be made in due course.

The spokesperson told The Independent: “The government will retain the position of envoy for freedom of religion and belief.”

The Independent recently revealed that the Ukrainian government is attempting to have Ukrainian MP Artem Dmytruk, a critic over the anti-Orthodox church policy, deported from the UK.

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Speaking to The Independent, Metropolitan Arseniy warned: “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is facing a great trial. Our holy temples and shrines have been destroyed, and our priests and parishioners are being killed in the war. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government seeks to ban the church. Priests are being wrongfully arrested, and our places of worship are being seized and taken from us.”

The Ukrainian government has turned its attention to the UOC even though many of its priests are helping the country’s army on the front line against Putin’s Russian forces. However, Mr Zelensky’s government has accused many UOC priests of spying for Russia and claims it takes its orders from Putin ally Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, a former senior figure in the KGB.

Metropolitan Arseniy is father superior of the Sviatohirsk Lavra, one of the most famous Orthodox monasteries in Ukraine, and is being held in pre-trial detention in Dnipro, where he has been arbitrarily detained since April.

He strongly denies the accusations against him personally and the UOC that they are working for Putin.

He said: “The authorities in Ukraine unfairly accuse the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of being a mouthpiece of Russian propaganda. Nothing is further from the truth. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a one-thousand-year-old Christian denomination. Its churches and monasteries are world renowned. We do not preach any ideology. We preach the good news of God’s promise of forgiveness from sin.”

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He pointed out that his monastery was closed by the communist authorities in the old Soviet Union and only reopened after its collapse with him taking the leadership in 1995.

The Ukrainian authorities turned their attention on him after he preached a sermon in September 2023 complaining about pilgrims being prevented from coming to the monastery because of the war. But he insists that his monastery has shared in the pain of Ukraine.

“We of the Sviatohirsk Lavra have suffered with our fellow Ukrainian citizens during the war. Our local parishioners fight on the front lines and our historic monastery has been badly damaged by bombing. However, the monks have persevered, and they continue to support those displaced by the conflict. Located just 15 kilometres from the front lines in Eastern Ukraine, the community provides shelter and food to those most at risk.

“Despite all the good that our monastery has done, the authorities seek to undo our hard work. The government has mounted a campaign to strip the monastery from us. Meanwhile, I have been persecuted for my faith and detained in jail.”

Describing his ordeal, he said: “In violation of the law and criminal procedure of Ukraine, I have been detained in a prison facility for nearly six months. My court hearings offer no hope of respite.

“Over the summer, I was forced to travel eight hours from where I am held in Dnipro to reach Sloviansk, the location of the court, a town close to the front lines. The vehicle often had no air-conditioning, and I suffocated in the summer heat.

“I was handcuffed for the duration of the journey and denied water and food. Once the hearings were over, I was forced to travel back to Dnipro in the same conditions.”

The harrowing journey was then repeated the following day.

He added: “I am 56, and my health is beginning to fail. Although I do not know when I will be released, I put my trust in God and will continue to speak only truth.

“I pray for this ordeal to end, for my return to Sviatohirsk, the reconstruction of our monastery, and peace in Ukraine. I pray too for an end to the attack on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We Ukrainians must be united.”