Democracy?! Didnt Z ban opposition parties? He also facilitated the persecution of Orthodox Christians. Ukraines SBU's own November 2025 figures: 208 criminal proceedings against UOC clergy since 2022, 78 notified of suspicion (including 27 metropolitans and archbishops), 40 sentenced to prison, including 4 diocesan hierarchs, and 19 stripped of citizenship or residence — among them Metropolitan Onuphry himself, by presidential decree on July 2, 2025. Arrests/prosecutions: Metropolitan Pavel of the Kyiv Caves Lavra (charged April 2023, detained, released on 33.3 million UAH bail, trial still ongoing); Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchyn (5-year sentence, later released to Moscow); Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatohirsk (arrested April 2024, held about 22 months in pre-trial detention before house arrest in February 2026). Conscription: Clergy lost their peacetime deferment in wartime; the December 2024 "critical organisation" reservation exempts roughly 6,500–7,900 clergy but expressly excludes the UOC. Dozens of named priests and deacons were taken by recruitment offices in 2024–2026; one archpriest is reported killed at the front (single-source, flagged in the report). Seizures: The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra buildings (2023), cathedrals in Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy — where Metropolitan Theodosius was hospitalised in the October 2024 assault on St. Michael's Cathedral. The state's count of parish transfers to the OCU is 1,387 for 2022–early 2026; a Carnegie count puts voluntary-looking transfers lower (685 through May 2024). Arrests and prosecutions — 19 entries, from Bishop Gedeon's 2019 deportation through the SBU's hierarch cases (Jonathan, Pavel, Arseniy, Theodosius, Longin, Luke, Onuphry) and the unnamed cases the state itself reported. Conscription — the exemption system explained (and why the UOC is excluded from it), plus about 35 named cases of priests and deacons taken by recruitment offices in 2024–2026. Church seizures — 13 documented cases: the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, cathedrals in Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, and Volodymyr-Volynskyi. Pochaiv Lavra is noted as not seized — its lease runs to 2052. One honest caveat: many parish-level and conscription cases rest on a single source (usually the Union of Orthodox Journalists or the UOC itself), and several SBU cases involve unnamed clergy in state releases. The legal backbone is Law 3894-IX (in force September 23, 2024); the UN's human rights office called it disproportionate, and seven UN Special Rapporteurs said the pattern "appears to amount to collective punishment."

A visit from Kenny. Today during the Divine Liturgy, I noticed a man I recognized, he had been to our parish once or twice before. He is homeless. We get someone like him from time to time. I will be honest: I was on guard. On one occasion, a man like him stole cash from the candle desk, and since then I have instructed the men of our parish to keep a close eye on such visitors, in case they cause trouble. But as I looked out from the altar, something unsettled me; no one was paying him much attention at all. No one seemed alarmed. And we had every reason to be watchful: today was our fall festival, with crowds coming and extra money being collected for the fundraiser. My mind raced with anxious thoughts. Why was no one concerned? Then came the Gospel reading and my conscience struck me like a blow. I was about to preach on Luke's Sermon on the Plain: on being merciful, on giving without expectation of return, on treating strangers — even enemies — with compassion, whether or not they deserve it or can ever repay it. For this is the way of the children of the Highest. I resolved that after Liturgy I would offer the man a free meal. But when the dismissal came he was gone. We went on preparing for the festival and the crowds we hoped would come. A couple of hours later, I saw him again standing far off in the parking lot. I walked over, and before I could even greet him, he asked if he could have a word with me. He told me his name was Kenny and had went drinking after the liturgy and asks me not to be angered. It was plain to see and most likely the reason for his life’s situation. Then, with tears welling in his piercing blue eyes and rolling down his sunburnt face, he told me he had been touched by God. He felt God's presence in our parish - in the service, in the message, but most of all in the warmth of my parishioners. Everyone had greeted him, welcomed him, without a trace of judgment. He expressed he wants to come back every Sunday and feel this again. I had tears in my own eyes as I listened, and such pride in my people showing this man, hardened by life, a living example of Christian love. I told him he is welcome anytime; our doors are open to him, as long as he comes sober. I invited him to eat, but he refused. He only wanted to stand afar off, watching the fellowship of the people and listening to the live music. Today was a gift. An angel visited us in the form of a broken man — and my congregation received him with the hospitality Abraham showed the angels at the Oak of Mamre. I thank God for this man, and for my parish, whose love answered even when my own heart's first response was caution. Glory to God for all things!