An imprisoned Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest has been sent 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from his parish in Russian-occupied Ukraine to a hard labor camp in Russia to serve his 14-year sentence on false espionage charges, according to rights group Forum 18.
The Rev. Kostiantyn Vyacheslavovich Maksimov, 41, had lost a closed court appeal of his conviction by a Russian-controlled Supreme Court, the group stated. He was transferred from his Tokmak parish in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Region in Ukraine to the labor camp in Saratov region, Russia on Feb. 11.
“Russian occupation authorities have repeatedly tried to pressure priests of both the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church linked to the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) to join new dioceses,” Forum 18 explained in a press statement. “The Moscow Patriarchate Russian Orthodox Church has unilaterally established [itself] on occupied Ukrainian territory. Both OCU and UOC clergy have… disappeared after they have refused.”
Russian occupation forces first arrested Maksimov in May 2023. They held him in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, controlled by Russia, before transferring him to Investigation Prison No. 2 in the Crimean capital Simferopol in February 2024. The Prosecutor’s Office previously alleged that Maksimov used the internet to transmit coordinates of the deployment of Russian air defense equipment to the Ukrainian security service.
Zaporizhzhia Regional Court, at a closed trial at Crimean Supreme Court, all controlled by Russia, sentenced the priest to 14 years in prison on Aug. 2. He lost an appeal on Nov. 14 in absentia at a closed hearing at the First Appeal Court in Moscow.
“This is a secret case, and the appeal hearing will be closed,” Judge Melekhin’s assistant, Yekaterina Kiryanova, told Forum 18 from the same court in October.
Appeal court judges, chaired by Pavel Melekhin, agreed to reduce the priest’s sentence by eight months because of time spent in unacknowledged detention from his initial arrest in May 2023 until the official arrest in February 2024.
“The punishment assigned to K.V. Maksimov is just,” stated the court decision seen by Forum 18, “in connection with which the judicial panel does not see a basis for agreeing with the appeal’s arguments for it to be softened or assigning a less strict punishment.”
The court ruled to exclude from the previous lower court’s verdict a reference to Maksimov’s alleged spying as taking place “in conditions of armed conflict and military action.”
Maksimov did not want the Berdyansk Diocese of the UOC to join with the Russian Orthodox Church, according to an October 2023 claim to Forum 18 by Artyom Sharlay, head of the Russian occupiers’ Department for Work with Ethnic, Religious and Cossack Organizations of the Social and Political Communications Department. The departments are part of the Internal Policy Department of the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Regional Administration.
The transfer of Maksimov to Russia violates the Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, regarding the rights of civilians in territories occupied by another state (described as “protected persons”). Article 76 states, “Protected persons accused of offenses shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein.”
An Oct. 1 report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded human rights abuses in Ukraine from June 2023 to August 2024. OHCHR noted it “continued to document cases of arbitrary detention, torture, including sexual violence, and enforced disappearance of civilians in the occupied territory.”
“OHCHR also documented cases of arbitrary detention when the occupying authorities detained people for what appeared to be legitimate exercise of their freedom of expression or religion and belief,” the report added. “In several of these cases, those affected shared information with OHCHR on a confidential basis, fearing that publication of details about their cases could result in repercussions.”
Russia illegally claimed to have annexed parts of Ukraine in the 2022 invasion of Russian armed forces, stated Forum 18. Authorities then imposed Russian criminal and administrative codes of law later that year, affecting local Ukrainian populations, including the jailing of other Orthodox priests, mainstream Protestants and people of other faiths such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslim clergy.
Among the jailed Orthodox clergymen was the Rev. Stepan Podolchak, an OCU priest, who died on Feb. 13, 2024 in the Ukrainian village of Kalanchak in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Region. Authorities took him away barefoot with a bag over his head, insisting he needed to come for questioning, according to Forum 18. His bruised body – possibly with a bullet-wound to the head – was found on the street in the village two days later.
Forum 18 tried to contact the Special Department at the labor camp where Maksimov is jailed but stated that the duty officer refused to help. He is detained at the labor camp in 412815 Saratovskaya oblast, Krasnoarmeysky raion, Pos. Kamensky, Ul. Zelenaya d. 20A, 10-ii otryad, FKU Ispravitelnaya koloniya No. 23 UFSIN Rossii po Saratovskoi oblasti, Russian Federation, according to the rights group.
