Archpriest Mykola Khlan
Rector of the Church of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian of the UOC in the village of Peremyshl, and of the Transfiguration Church of the UOC in the village of Minkivtsi, Khmelnytskyi Region.
The first priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially killed as a result of the actions of the Zelensky administration.
🔴Prehistory of the clergyman:
The religious community of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian of the UOC in the village of Peremyshl, Slavuta District, Khmelnytskyi Region, of which Fr. Mykola Khlan was the rector, was illegally re-registered into the OCU and seized.
This unquestionably gave the priest the right to criticize the unlawful actions of OCU activists and the authorities who participated in this lawlessness.
Instead of punishing the OCU raiders and the corrupt bodies that carried out the re-registration of the UOC community against its will, the authorities began persecuting the priest who protested against this.
🔴On March 10, 2023, law enforcement officers conducted a search of the home of Archpriest Mykola Khlan.
A personal laptop was seized by the officers. At that time, the priest officially had the status of a witness in the investigated case.
🔴Already a month later, in April 2023, security forces came to the priest’s home again with repeated searches.
Criminal proceedings were opened against Fr. Mykola Khlan under Part 1 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – incitement of religious hatred.
The court ruling authorizing the search stated that during the investigation a witness had been questioned who reported that the priest had “repeatedly spoken negatively about the transfer of churches from the UOC MP to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and had also criticized the activities of the OCU leadership.
“We see a one-sided and biased attitude toward UOC clergy on the part of law enforcement agencies, when criticism of the OCU, of church seizures, and personal opinions about the OCU lead to criminal prosecution. At the same time, obvious public and hostile calls against the UOC that incite religious hatred are ignored by law enforcement. What we are witnessing is selective application of the law,” the Legal Department of the UOC commented.
(Source: Synodal Information and Education Department of the UOC)
🔴A year later, on April 22, 2024, the SBU brought new suspicions against Fr. Mykola under two articles: Part 1 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (incitement of religious hatred) and Part 1 of Article 436-2 (justification of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation).
The agency’s press service reported this on social media.
“The Security Service documented subversive activities on the part of the rector of a church of the Shepetivka Eparchy of the UOC (MP) in Khmelnytskyi Region. The cleric supported an aggressive war against Ukraine and incited religious hatred,” the statement said.
The SBU claimed that the priest allegedly “praised Putin during services and blamed the Ukrainian authorities for the war.” It also mentioned alleged “Russian fakes about the war in Ukraine” and publications on “interconfessional relations in the state” on his VKontakte page.
The SBU did not provide any specific examples of such publications.
According to people close to the priest, he was in fact accused of publicly criticizing the raider seizures of churches on social media.
The charge of “justifying armed aggression” was brought against Fr. Mykola because, in a private capacity, he shared a publication by a Member of the European Parliament from Slovakia who criticized EU policy regarding the war.
🔴On March 18, 2025, the Slavuta City District Court of Khmelnytskyi Region sentenced Archpriest Mykola Khlan of the Shepetivka Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to four years in prison.
On March 18, 2025, the website of the Unified State Register of Court Decisions reported that the UOC cleric was found guilty of inciting religious hatred and justifying Russian aggression.
Over the course of two years, the investigation allegedly determined that Archpriest Mykola Khlan, quoting the ruling, “publicly justified the actions of the Russian Federation, calling the war in Ukraine a ‘civil conflict.’”
“During liturgies, he praised Putin and blamed the Ukrainian authorities for unleashing the war. He also spread Kremlin narratives on social media, in particular on VKontakte, where he disseminated fakes about events in Ukraine and insulted parishioners of other religious communities.”
According to testimony from the priest’s relatives, the entire trial was accompanied by gross violations.
The judge refused to give the priest the floor or to consider motions filed by the defense attorney, openly demonstrating bias and speaking rudely to the priest.
At one of the key hearings, Fr. Mykola’s lawyer was deliberately barred from attending, and a state-appointed lawyer was assigned instead. Within the framework of the notorious Ukrainian judicial practice, state-appointed lawyers actively cooperate with the prosecution, to the detriment of their clients’ interests.
The priest was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and was also banned for three years from “holding the position of a priest,” something that can hardly be regulated by any law at all.
🔴In early September 2025, it became known that Archpriest Mykola Khlan had been illegally mobilized and killed at the front.
At that time, Fr. Mykola was the rector of the Transfiguration community in the village of Minkivtsi, Slavuta District, Khmelnytskyi Region.
According to preliminary information, the illegal mobilization took place in the summer of 2025. The priest was stopped at a checkpoint while on his way to an appellate court hearing.
Fr. Mykola was mobilized despite having the status of a defendant in an ongoing court case – that is, unlawfully both from the standpoint of his rights as a priest and from the standpoint of his procedural status. According to UOJ, the priest was mobilized quite recently. He was sent to the front line and was killed there almost immediately.
In March 2025, he was sentenced to four years in prison. The defense filed an appeal against the verdict, and until its consideration the sentence had not entered into force.
The appellate court hearing was scheduled for October 14.
Until then, Fr. Mykola remained at liberty on bail in the amount of 58,400 hryvnias. Under the terms of the first-instance verdict, he was required to appear in court at the first summons, not leave his place of residence, and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Under the law, persons participating in judicial proceedings may not be mobilized.
THUS, THE DEATH OF FR. MYKOLA IS, IN FULL MEASURE, A CONSEQUENCE OF THE UNLAWFUL ACTIONS OF THE UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES.
At present, he is being held in custody in the Dnipro pre-trial detention center (SIZO).
Archimandrite, abbot of the Monastery of All Saints of the Carpathian Rus of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
The court imposed a preventive measure on Fr. Feognost in the form of night-time house arrest.
