Thus, UOC archpriest Sergius Chertilin, who is in a pre-trial detention center, reported through his lawyers that the authorities are collecting a “gold exchange fund” from UOC clergy to transfer them to Russia, accusing them of non-existent serious crimes.
The archpriest told UOJ that at first he did not understand why the investigation attributed to him an unrealistic role in the UOC, from blocking bills from the Rada to leading “clandestine” organizations he had never heard of. “But everything fits if you look at the UOC’s senior clerics not as people guilty of something, but as ‘good for exchange,'” said Archpriest Chertilin.
He acknowledged the logic of the compilers of the “gold fund” of exchange: “Who needs an ordinary parish priest, but if we say that he created a network of agents, blocked the law banning the UOC, headed many organizations, then this is something else. It matters”, Archpriest Sergio confirmed his assumption.
The UOC cleric also noted that the reason for the increased pressure on Metropolitan Theodosius of Cherkasy and Kanev is that he categorically and consistently rejects the options of exchange and his transfer to Russia.
