UOC refutes fake about detention of priest on suspicion of espionage

The Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has denied fake stories in social networks that law enforcers detained a UOC priest along with a 38-year-old man suspected of espionage in Kyiv, reports the Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The Metropolis said that on 16 March 2022, the National Police reported the detention of a Russian native on suspicion of espionage near a Kyiv metro station. Social networks started to spread fakes that "a priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, Father Onufriy (Sergey Tarasov), was also detained along with him".

The Metropilis stated that the detainees have nothing to do with clerics of the Church. "The Kyiv Metropolis reports that there is no hieromonk Onufriy with the secular name Sergey Tarasov on the staff of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," the UOC said.

Earlier, the Bila Tserkva Eparchy refuted the fake story about saboteurs in the UOC monastery.

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