Former Ukrainian MP Claims Zelenskyy Personally Ordered Arrest of Met. Arseny
Ihor Mosiychuk alleges move aims to pressure hierarch into prisoner exchange; calls case a matter of “humanity."
KYIV — Former Ukrainian lawmaker Ihor Mosiychuk has alleged that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy personally approved the arrest of Met. Arseny of Sviatohirsk, the abbot of the Sviatohirsk Lavra, one of Ukraine’s most important Orthodox monasteries. This was first reported by UOJ-Ukraine.
“This was done by the decision of Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy himself,” Mosiychuk said in an interview with blogger Oleksandr Shelest. “If anyone starts saying again that it was (Interior Minister) Yelensky or (Presidential Chief of Staff) Yermak — no, it was all done on the personal orders of Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy.”
Mosiychuk, who identified himself as a member of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), said that a more lenient measure could have been applied to the hierarch. “The elder could have been placed under house arrest — round-the-clock, or at least nightly. But no, prison — no, the pre-trial detention center,” he said indignantly.
He further claimed that the arrest’s goal is to coerce Met. Arseny into agreeing to a prisoner exchange. “So that Met. Arseny would agree to be exchanged for someone from the Russian Federation—someone significant, clearly someone of value to Russia,” Mosiychuk said.
Met. Arseny has reportedly resisted such pressure, affirming his loyalty to Ukraine. “But with this arrest, Zelenskyy is directly sending him a message: either exchange, or die,” Mosiychuk stated.
The former MP recalled that Met. Arseny remained at the Sviatohirsk Lavra throughout Russian bombardments, surviving two collapses in the monastery cellars. “This situation has nothing to do with confessional affiliation or anything else — it concerns only one thing: humanity,” he concluded.
Previously, UOJ reported that hierarchs of the UOC had appealed to Zelenskyy in support of Met. Arseny.
