Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has exchanged at least four UOC-MP clergymen for prisoners.
According to LB.ua, this was reported by the CHESNO movement.
Despite the lack of official data, there is information about the exchange provided by open sources. At the same time, law enforcement officers opened about 70 criminal proceedings against representatives of the UOC-MP, as well as 16 against metropolitans. The crimes include 20 cases of high treason and collaboration. 26 were notified of suspicion, and another 19 received court sentences.
In June, the head of the Tulchyn diocese of the UOC-MP, Jonathan Yeletskych, was exchanged for several Ukrainian prisoners. (According to Lukashenko, the metropolitan was exchanged for Mykola Shvets, who was accused of sabotaging a Russian A-50 aircraft in Machulyshchyi - RISU).
Priest Zakroyets was released due to a court decision to transfer him for exchange as a prisoner of war. was The rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist of the UOC-MP Diocese of Dnipro, Oleksandr Luniehov, who was convicted of justifying Russia's armed aggression, was also exchanged.
This is not the first time such exchanges have taken place. In 2023, the rector of the Lysychansk St. Tikhvin Church of the UOC-MP, Andriy Pavlenko, convicted of high treason, was exchanged for 28 Ukrainian servicemen.