Accused human rights defenders and journalists in the “UOJ Case”

Defendants in the “UOJ case”

Viktor Vyshnevetskyi
(Ukrainian: Віктор Вікторович Вишневецький)
Date of birth: January 8, 1968

Archpriest Tarasii Zabudko
(Ukrainian: Забудько Тарас Іванович)
Date of birth: February 24, 1977

Archpriest Oleksii Zoshchuk
(Ukrainian: Зощук Олексій Петрович)
Date of birth: May 7, 1983

Mykola Moisiienko
(Ukrainian: Мойсієнко Микола Вікторович)
Date of birth: May 26, 1983

Lev Klymenko
(Ukrainian: Лев Миколайович Клименко)
Date of birth: March 2, 1999

Iryna Ovcharenko (Iryna Vershynina)
(Ukrainian: Ірина Дмитрівна Овчаренко (Ірина Дмитрівна Вершиніна)
Date of birth: March 1, 1978

Kateryna Zharkykh
(Ukrainian: Катерина Денисівна Жарких)
Date of birth: May 10, 1994

Ruslan Kalynchuk
(Ukrainian: Руслан Васильович Калинчук)
Date of birth: August 5, 1987

The above-mentioned priests, patrons, journalists, and human rights defenders face an identical set of charges within the framework of the “UOJ case” as those brought against the three journalists and one priest who were detained in Kyiv (see the previous section).

Charges alleged:

• Part 2, Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – high treason committed under martial law;

• Part 6, Article 111-1 – collaborationist activity;

• Part 4, Article 28; Parts 1 and 2, Article 255 – creation of and participation in a criminal organization;

• Part 3, Article 161 – incitement of religious hatred and enmity committed by an organized group;

• Parts 1 and 2, Article 436-2 – justification, recognition as lawful, or denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the special services “neutralized in Kyiv a criminal organization that carried out information sabotage on the orders of the FSB.”

“The perpetrators mass-produced and disseminated pro-Kremlin narratives and provocative messages intended to destabilize the socio-political situation and incite religious hatred in Ukraine,” the SBU claimed.

At the same time, the SBU has not provided any evidence of cooperation between UOJ staff members and other individuals listed above with the FSB, nor of receiving any “orders” from the FSB or other Russian state bodies for the activities conducted within the frameworks of the UOJ, “Pershyi Kozatskyi” (“First Cossack”) or the “Myriany” (“Laypeople”) initiative.

Moreover, some of the individuals listed have not been employees or contributors to UOJ or Pershyi Kozatskyi for many years and were never participants in the “Myriany” initiative.

Thus, Kateryna Zharkykh has not worked for the Pershyi Kozatskyi channel since 2019.

Ruslan Kalynchuk has not worked there since 2022.

On October 31, 2025, personal sanctions were imposed against all the listed individuals by decree of the President of Ukraine.

For all eight Ukrainian citizens listed above:

March 12, 2024 – searches were conducted, and notices of suspicion were issued and handed to family members;

October 2025 – the prosecutor’s office approved the conduct of a special pretrial investigation at the request of SBU investigators;

October 31, 2025 – personal sanctions were imposed in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 810/2025 and a decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

Sources: Office of the President of Ukraine

Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ)

Status:

The cases have not been closed, and legal proceedings are ongoing.
The journalists and human rights defenders are at liberty, outside Ukraine, and are subject to personal sanctions.

The imposed sanctions include:
– blocking of assets;
– prohibition on the distribution of media content within Ukraine;
– termination of electronic communication services;
– restrictions on trade operations;
– deprivation of state awards of Ukraine.

It is important to note that one individual on the list, Ruslan Kalynchuk, who had not been involved in the work of any of the Orthodox media projects persecuted by the SBU – UOJ and Pershyi Kozatskyi – for quite some time, has reportedly relocated to the Russian Federation.

There has also been no cooperation for a long time between Kateryna Zharkykh and the teams of the aforementioned media outlets.

Important notes: The SBU and the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly and unlawfully blocked UOJ websites on the territory of Ukraine.

Source: UOJ

Attempts were also made to ban and block the social media resources of the Pershyi Kozatskyi project.

In particular, the channel’s YouTube page was deleted five times on contrived and falsified grounds, apparently as a result of corrupt relations between agents of the Ukrainian authorities and Google employees.

One of the persecuted journalists gave comments on the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as well as on detained and imprisoned UOJ colleagues, to international human rights lawyer Robert Amsterdam. Mykola Moisiienko represented the human rights initiative “Ukraine Without Religious Repression” in that report.