Russian pastor arrested for speaking out against invasion of Ukraine: report
A Russian pastor has been arrested after criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and urging believers not to participate in the conflict.
Nikolay Romanyuk, senior pastor of the Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church in Moscow Region, is the first religious figure to be charged under legislation that deters criticism of the authorities amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, reports the Norway-based human rights watchdog Forum 18.
Pastor Romanyuk, who is facing charges under laws targeting public calls against state security, is currently being held at Investigation Prison No. 11 in Noginsk, located roughly 50 kilometers east of Moscow.
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Investigators arrested the pastor following early-morning armed raids on his home and the homes of several other church members on Oct. 18. Two days later, a judge ordered him to be detained for two months.
The authorities' investigation into Romanyuk centers on a sermon he delivered in September 2022, during which he explicitly stated that, based on the teachings of the Bible, believers should not go to fight in Ukraine.
The sermon was livestreamed and subsequently uploaded to the church's YouTube channel, leading to charges under Criminal Code Article 280.4, Part 2, Paragraph V — which addresses public calls against the security of the Russian Federation using mass media or the internet.
If convicted, the pastor faces a potential sentence of up to six years in prison or a fine of up to one million Roubles, or $9,600, roughly equivalent to seven months' average wage in Moscow.
It remains unclear which state agencies carried out the raids or initiated the criminal proceedings, Forum 18 said, adding they sent inquiries to several branches, including the Federal Investigative Committee, the Moscow Region Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service, seeking explanations about how Romanyuk's sermon posed a threat to state security and why armed raids were necessary. None of the branches responded.
Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church is a registered religious organization with multiple sister communities across Moscow and its surrounding region.
The operations were heavy-handed, with some homes forcibly entered, digital devices seized, and residents forced to lie on the floor at gunpoint, local sources were quoted as saying.
Ukrainian pastor Vladimir Franchuk, an acquaintance of Romanyuk, wrote in a blog post, "The entire family has gone through great psychological trauma today, but such searches and arrests in modern Russia are predictable and expected — to our great regret."
During his September 2022 sermon, Romanyuk reportedly said: "When you are offered a hit, when you are offered a bottle of alcohol, or you are given a summons to send you to combat — this is the same sin, and the same drug, and the same Satan. Find me in the Old Testament even a hint that we could somehow participate. This is not our war."
He added, "It was written in our doctrine that we are pacifists and cannot participate in this. It is our right to profess this on the basis of Holy Scripture. We do not bless those who go there [to war]. [Those] who are taken by force, we do not bless them, but we pray that they are rescued from there."
Other religious figures have faced similar accusations.
Among them is Ilya Vasilyev, the founder and director of the Moscow Zen Centre, who is set to go on trial on Dec. 3 for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces.
In June, Redemptorist Fathers Ivan Levytsky and Bohdan Geleta, two priests from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, were released from Russian captivity after 19 months as part of a prisoner exchange, with diplomatic efforts including the Vatican's involvement. A church leader said there were alarming reports of the priests being regularly tortured during their captivity.
