Defense Intelligence considers changing UOC priests to POWs

Searches in the monastery of the Mukachevo diocese. Photo: SBU press service

Andriy Yusov, the representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, stated on Channel 24 that UOC priests, if detained during searches, can be exchanged for Ukrainian military prisoners.

"On the example of the great exchange and the fate of Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukraine has shown that it is ready to demonstrate the most creative approaches to return its citizens home. Ukraine will definitely seize any opportunities that will turn up for this – both formal and informal, both public and non-public, both open and closed," Yusov said in response to a journalist's question, "if it is possible to involve collaborators from the FSB cells of the so-called UOC MP for the exchange fund."

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the SBU had searched the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and a number of other monasteries and eparchies of the UOC. During the searches, security forces seized computers, mobile phones, books and money, but the SBU did not detain a single cleric.

Read also