Met. Arseny in Ukrainian Court: 'I Am Defending the Good That Still Exists in Ukraine'
According to Met. Arseny, his case illustrates the choice that every person in Ukraine faces today.
DNIPRO — On Oct. 30, 2025, a hearing was held in the Soborny District Court of Dnipro in the case of the abbot of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra, Met. Arseny (Yakovenko), the monastery’s official website reported.
As shared by UOJ's Ukrainian branch, in his address to the court, Met. Arseny emphasized that what is happening is not merely a personal accusation against him but a test for the entire nation:
“I am not defending myself," he said. "I am defending the good that still exists in Ukraine. We are now being tested — for our humanity, our conscience, and our common sense."
He noted that many people both in Ukraine and abroad have spoken out in his defense.
“A human rights advocate from London, Peter Crew, visited me in the pre-trial detention center and later spoke publicly on my behalf. Another human rights advocate, Robert Amsterdam, wrote a letter to Sen. James David Vance [now Vice President JD Vance] in my defense. I have lived and continue to live for the Ukrainian people — I worked not for an abstract Ukraine and not for Moscow, but for the people of Ukraine. Yet people have forgotten this and now portray me as an enemy of the people, demanding that I be imprisoned for five or eight years."
He stressed that he has never intended to leave Ukraine.
“They say I might flee. Forgive me, but in 2022 I was in the Lavra under shelling — I was twice buried in the basement and the brethren dug me out. The front line was only 80 meters from the monastery. I had every opportunity to flee, but I stayed."
Met. Arseny also responded to the prosecution’s claims that he might destroy documents or influence witnesses.
“What documents could I destroy when everything was already seized from me during a search conducted without me or my lawyer? As for the witnesses — these are three Security Service officers who, in open court, named exact coordinates of checkpoints allegedly ‘passed on’ by me. But the sermon for which I am being tried was delivered on the evening of September 23, while they claim they were at the Lavra on the morning of the 24th. The entire sermon is publicly available on YouTube — there are no numbers in it at all."
“You will now strike the gavel and say, ‘In the name of Ukraine.’ And that means — in the name of the people of Ukraine. Well, the people of Ukraine support the Sviatohirsk Lavra, they pray for me, and they consider me their metropolitan. Before one of the hearings, a judge told me, ‘I have a dilemma — whether to act according to God’s will or to keep my job.’ That is the truth of our times,” Met. Arseny concluded.
The session of the Soborny District Court was interrupted several times — first due to the metropolitan’s absence at a simultaneous hearing in the Shevchenkivskyi Court, then because of an air raid alert and shelling in Dnipro. After midnight, the hearing was postponed until today, Oct. 31, 2025.
Previously, UOJ reported that Met. Arseny was released from jail, but then immediately detained again by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
