MOSCOW, March 11 Priest of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) Mykola Zirka, who was held by Ukrainian security forces, was released during a prisoner exchange in February, Archpriest Andriy Pavlenko, rector of the St. Tikhvin Cathedral in Lisichansk, said.
«There was an exchange two weeks ago. The Ministry of Defense carried it out. 101 people returned home, among them was Father Nikolai Zirka. He served in the village of Yarovoye, Krasnolimansky District,» he said in the program «The Church and Us» on the Russia 24 TV channel.
The Russian branch of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights earlier applied to the OSCE with a proposal to adopt a resolution on the pardon or release by the Ukrainian authorities of the arrested representatives of the Orthodox and Jewish communities of Ukraine and the prevention of discrimination on religious grounds. It mentioned the priest Mykola Zirka, who at that time was kept in the same Ukrainian prison as Pavlenko.
On April 18, 2022, Pavlenko himself was detained by Ukrainian militants, after which he was beaten and tortured. He spent more than a week in the Lisichansk police station, and after that he was transferred to the detention center in Dnepropetrovsk. The clergyman, according to his lawyer, was forced to incriminate himself so that he would confess to allegedly working for Russian intelligence, a court in Ukraine sentenced him to 12 years in prison. He was subsequently released.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation informed that as a result of negotiations with the territory controlled by Kyiv on February 16, 101 Russian servicemen were returned, they were in mortal danger in captivity.
February 4 On February 4, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that 63 Russian servicemen had been released from Ukrainian captivity as a result of negotiations. According to the Ombudsman of the Luhansk People's Republic, Viktoria Serdyukova, for the first time in the practice of exchanges, Ukraine handed over captured LPR fighters without signs of torture.