Kyiv Court Changes Restraint For UOC Moscow Patriarchate’s Metropolitan Pavel

The man has been taken into custody.

The Solomensky District Court of Kyiv at a hearing on July 14 changed the measure of restraint for the ex-vicar of the monastery of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Moscow Patriarchate Pavel (Lebed), Suspіlne reports.

The Metropolitan, who was under house arrest, was taken into custody with the possibility of making a UAH 33 million bail.

The basis for changing the measure of restraint was the violation of one of the duties imposed by the investigating judge: Lebed spoke with one of the witnesses in the criminal case, the prosecution said. The metropolitan himself claims that he allegedly does not know this witness.

In court, Lebed spoke with reporters. In a video published by Glavred, he refused to call Russia an aggressor. “The Russian Federation is not an aggressor because [my] sister lives there. And those who make this aggression, I condemn them,” he said, answering questions from the media. Who exactly is guilty of aggression, Pavel also did not specify. “You said federation. Am I going to call my sister an aggressor?” he added.