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The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), the largest Orthodox group in Ukraine while also the largest denomination of any Christian group there, is in a constant battle with the government of atheistic Volodymyr Zelensky, the hitherto darling of much of the European Union and certain sycophants in both US political parties. Simultaneously, the former comedian turned head of state, who is a non-Christian in an overwhelmingly Christian nation, persecutes the UOC on a variety of levels.
Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk, a city in the northern part of the contested Donetsk Oblast in Ukraine, has been under the yoke of the Zelensky regime since April 24, 2024 when trumped up charges were levelled against him in an orchestrated attempt to lessen his influence and demean him, as he was deemed a pro-Moscow symbol in an area which is heavily russified in language and Orthodoxy. He was accused of using a sermon in 2023 to indicate Zelensky loyal military checkpoints loyal to Zelensky to the Russian military, a charge he has continually denied.
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In an attempt to stem the popularity of the canonical UOC, the Zelensky government, with the imprimatur, irritating to millions of Orthodox, of Patriarch Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople since 1991, created a state compliant Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The latter has attempted to wrest control of traditional Orthodox lavras (monasteries) and other historical sites belonging to the canonical UOC since the OCU was established as a counter denomination. Vladyka (Bishop) Arseniy, as a firm member of the UOC, has then become a lightning rod for Kievian persecution. Many have commented that the creation of a “state compliant church” hearkens to the example of Germany during WWII in which the “Bekennende Kirche” (the Confessional Lutheran Church) was in direct opposition to the Hitlerian Protestant Reich Church, founded to rubber stamp directives from Berlin and to manipulate Christian reaction to unchristian policies.
On November 3, 2025, during a court recess, Vladyka Arseniy suddenly became ill. Chancellor Antony of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared, “It is physically possible to undermine the health of the bishop, but his spirit cannot be broken.” The image of confessional Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer immediately comes to mind. Metropolitan Arseniy’s blood pressure spiked to 200 over 110 while reviewing in court the video footage of his arrest on October 28, 2025. Neither his lawyers nor he were allowed to comment on the footage nor was it paused for any review, in essence using it as a means of psychological denigration without opportunity for defense.
Many thanks to Matushka Elena Perekrestov for reviewing the video of Vladyka Arseniy and providing commentary on it in English:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1375934727388940
The judge demanded that Vladyka be brought back to the courtroom from the hospital for the remainder of his hearing. A video taken in the courtroom shows Vladyka with his hands still shaking from the spike in his blood pressure.
At the end of the hearing, the decision was to send him back to jail without bail, and he was taken back to the detention center.
Before he was taken away, Vladyka spoke to the people who came to support him (including Metropolitan Luke of Zaporizhye), offering them consolation (one can hear people crying.) «Don’t think we lost today. No. We are left with God and with a clear conscience. We are God’s. What can be better?»
And he speaks words of wisdom regarding how to suffer persecution -without letting anger into one’s heart «You know, they’re just doing their job. You think it’s easy for them?”.
He says he is one of the happiest people in the world, because he feels the love that so many people feel for him. He calls the people present «my very own, my close ones.» And then says – And now I’m going back to my other «close ones» – the people in his jail (or his convoy).
An Orthodox priest in the USA in support of Vladyka Arseniy declared in response, “I wish that more Americans were aware of what is going on in Ukraine as far as the state-sponsored persecution of the largest church in the country, the church of millions of faithful. All with the connivance of the American government in a country supposedly where we are pretending to support democracy. Isn’t freedom of religion one of the pillars of American democracy?”
