An imprisoned Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest, the Rev. Kostiantyn Vyacheslavovich Maksimov, has been sent to a hard labor camp in Russia to serve a 14-year sentence based on false espionage charges.
According to the rights group Forum 18, the 41-year-old priest lost a closed court appeal of his conviction by a Russian-controlled Supreme Court, leading to his transfer from his parish in Tokmak, located in the Zaporizhzhia Region of Ukraine, to a labor camp in Saratov, Russia, on February 11.
Forum 18 explained in a press statement that “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.”
The statement further noted that “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.”
Maksimov was first arrested by Russian occupation forces in May 2023. He was detained in Melitopol, a city in Ukraine under Russian control, before being transferred to Investigation Prison No. 2 in Simferopol, Crimea, in February 2024. The Prosecutor’s Office had previously alleged that Maksimov used the internet to transmit coordinates of Russian air defense equipment to the Ukrainian security service.
On August 2, 2024, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Court, during a closed trial at the Crimean Supreme Court, sentenced him to 14 years in prison. He subsequently lost an appeal on November 14, 2024, at a closed hearing in the First Appeal Court in Moscow.
Judge Melekhin’s assistant, Yekaterina Kiryanova, indicated to Forum 18 that “this is a secret case, and the appeal hearing will be closed.” However, appeal court judges, chaired by Pavel Melekhin, did agree to reduce Maksimov’s sentence by eight months due to time spent in unacknowledged detention following his initial arrest in May 2023.
The court's decision stated, “The punishment assigned to K.V. Maksimov is just,” and it noted a lack of basis for agreeing with the appeal’s arguments for a softer punishment. The court also ruled to exclude references to Maksimov’s alleged spying activities occurring “in conditions of armed conflict and military action” from the previous lower court verdict.
Maksimov had reportedly not wished for the Berdyansk Diocese of the UOC to join the Russian Orthodox Church. This claim was made to Forum 18 by Artyom Sharlay, head of the Russian occupiers’ Department for Work with Ethnic, Religious and Cossack Organizations.
The transfer of Maksimov to Russia is viewed as a violation of the Geneva Convention (IV) concerning the protection of civilians in occupied territories. Article 76 states that “protected persons accused of offenses shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein.”
Among the Orthodox clergymen imprisoned was the Rev. Stepan Podolchak, an OCU priest who died on February 13, 2024, in Kalanchak, a village in the Russian-occupied Kherson Region. Authorities reportedly took him away barefoot with a bag over his head for questioning, and two days later, his bruised body, possibly with a bullet wound to the head, was found on the street in the village, according to Forum 18.
