The Security Service of Ukraine has collected evidence against another fourteen high-ranking russian clerics who spread the kremlin regime in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, during 2022-2024 these persons were members of the kremlin-controlled ‘holy synod’ of the russian orthodox church. The individuals in question are:

• 1. Alexander Snigur (Artemiy) - metropolitan of Khabarovsk and the Amur Region;
• 2. Mikhail Kondratyev (Methodius) - bishop of Kamensk and Kamyshilov;
• 3. Vitaly Ermakov (Ambrose) - metropolitan of Tver and Kashin;
• 4. Leonid Gorbachev - patriarchal exarch of Africa;
• 5. Andrey Malakhanov - archbishop of Petropavlovsk and Kamchatka;
• 6. Peter Mansurov (Peter) - bishop of Kalachinsk and Muromtsevo;
• 7. Nikolai Tserpitsky (Lev) - metropolitan of Novgorod and Starorossiysk;
• 8. Yuri Epifanov (Arseny) - metropolitan of Lipetsk and Zadonsk;
• 9. Mikhail Nakonechny (Kirill) - metropolitan of Kazan and Tatarstan;
• 10. Alexei Krivenko (Nikolai) - bishop of North Baikal and Sosnovo-Ozerskoye;
• 11. Valery Golubev (Ilya) - archbishop of Anadyr and Chukotka;
• 12. Yan Kaygorodtsev (Hilarion) - Bishop of Kineshma and Palekh;
• 13. Ilya Perov (Tarasiy) - bishop of North Sea and Umba;
• 14. Alexander Taranov (Arkady) - archbishop of Rovenki and Sverdlovsk.

From the start of the full-scale war, these russian bishops, under the leadership of patriarch Gundyaev, facilitated the seizure of religious communities in the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine.

To do this, the clerics secured the decision of the moscow synod to ‘join’ the dioceses of Dzhankoy, Berdiansk, Rovenky and Kherson to the russian orthodox church and appointed bishops controlled by moscow.

Based on the evidence collected, all 14 clergymen were notified of suspicion in absentia under Articles 27.5, 110.3 of the CCU (aiding and abetting in the commission of intentional acts to change the boundaries of the territory or state border of Ukraine, in violation of the procedure established by the Constitution of Ukraine, upon prior conspiracy, by a group, which led to other grave consequences).

Efforts to bring them to justice for crimes against our state are underway.

The investigation was conducted under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In December 2024, the SSU served suspicion notices in absentia to four other representatives of the ‘holy synod’ of the russian orthodox church, who facilitated the seizure of Ukrainian churches in the temporarily occupied part of Ukraine, as well as to patriarch Kirill himself.