In Odessa, TCC employees kidnapped Archimandrite Rufin, a monastery resident

On April 24, 2026, Archimandrite Rufin, a monk of the Holy Dormition Monastery, was detained in Odesa. According to social media reports, the cleric was pulled out of a taxi by employees of the territorial recruitment center and taken to an unknown location. He later allegedly ended up at a training center near Kharkiv.

Other details of the incident are currently unknown, but the very fact of the monk's forced detention on the street is deeply alarming.

Human rights organizations view this as yet another instance of violent pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The forced detention and transfer to a training center of a monk who has no connection to military service is a gross violation of the right to freedom of movement and freedom of religion.

Human rights activists note that this practice has become systemic in Ukraine. Clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are detained on the streets, taken to military registration and enlistment offices, and sent to training centers, ignoring their status and canonical rules. Often, as in the case of Father Rufin, the trail goes cold, and relatives and parishioners are unable to obtain information about the detainee's whereabouts. Human rights organizations are calling for international attention to the practice of abducting clergymen in Ukraine.