Archimandrite Venedykt (Khromei)
Archimandrite Venedykt
(Secular name: Vitaliy Khromei)
Date of birth: 1983
Prior of the All Saints of Carpathian Rus' Monastery of the UOC, village of Bila Tserkva, Zakarpattia Oblast.
Rusyn, participant in the Rusyn movement.
On September 7, 2023, the SBU Directorate in Zakarpattia Oblast announced that "the SBU had exposed a UOC (MP) priest for promoting a communist regime…".
Officers of the security service claimed that on his social media page the priest "promoted the communist regime" and "disseminated Soviet symbols banned in Ukraine."
This was also confirmed by a forensic art examination initiated in connection with the case.
As would soon become clear, the "promotion of the communist regime" referred to the fact that Archimandrite Venedykt had, back in 2020 (!), posted an image of the medal "75th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War" to his Facebook account.
To be precise, he posted a Facebook avatar frame with a Victory Day greeting.
"The head of the church has been served notice of suspicion under Part 1 of Article 436-1 (dissemination of communist symbols and promotion of the communist totalitarian regime) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine," the SBU reported.
During interrogations, the clergyman explained his action by the fact that his grandfather had been a participant in World War II, and that the image of the "75 Years of Victory" medal posted on social media was a tribute to his relative who had served at the front.
Notably, even in this first SBU statement, they accusatorially declare that Father Venedykt "attempted to prevent the community from transferring to the OCU," which is plainly irrelevant to the case and does not constitute an offense.
The SBU apparently thinks otherwise and considers it its duty to facilitate "transfers to the OCU."
We quote:
"As the head of a territorial deanery — one of the first to leave the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate since the start of the full-scale invasion — the clergyman attempted in every way to prevent the community from transferring to the OCU."
The SBU also reported that computer equipment was seized from the monk, and that an alleged "large quantity of agitation and propaganda materials by Russian authors, and pamphlets of a separatist character" were found during the search.
"Among the items found by law enforcement officers were books that demean the religious feelings of citizens of other denominations and foster hostile attitudes toward them."
It is noteworthy that the photographic evidence attached by the SBU rather confirms that the literature found at the monk's residence is lawful, innocuous, and contains no calls to any unlawful actions.
Although the authors of the SBU publication clearly hoped to compromise the UOC cleric through what they put on display. This says much about the atmosphere of nationalist hysteria that has taken hold in Ukraine.
The SBU statement also mentions a number of other allegedly reprehensible finds, including song lyrics that reference Russia, or texts from old prayer books in which — in accordance with the canonical order and traditions of the Church of an earlier era — Russia or the name of Patriarch Kirill were mentioned. Despite the fact that none of the above constitutes or can constitute a criminal offense, all of it is cited as "evidence of the monk's guilt" and to incite hatred toward the UOC.
The fact that the search of Father Venedykt ultimately yielded nothing unlawful would become apparent very soon from the court rulings issued in his case.
Those rulings contain no finding of guilt in connection with the allegedly "separatist and pro-Russian materials" discovered by the SBU.
What law enforcement would actually seize upon in the future was alleged land-use violations in the construction of the church, discovered by SBU and police officers. This would lead to the opening of a second case — for unauthorized construction — under Article 197-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
"Furthermore, in the course of operational and investigative actions it was established that the head of the church had unlawfully occupied a plot of land on which the church was built. Criminal proceedings have been opened in connection with this fact under Article 197-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (unauthorized occupation of a land plot and unauthorized construction)," the SBU wrote.
It is important to note that following the searches, media outlets joined the harassment campaign against the archimandrite.
They not only uncritically quoted the SBU, but on their own initiative began adding to the story unverified information — and, crucially, information containing nothing criminal — to the effect that Father Venedykt is a "godfather-in-law of Oksana Marchenko."
By way of explanation: Oksana Marchenko is the wife of opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, whom the SBU and the Zelensky administration accused of treason and whom they relentlessly demonized in the media, grant-funded NGOs, and nationalist circles. During the war, Ukrainian citizen Viktor Medvedchuk was exchanged — in violation of Ukrainian law — for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Accordingly, the attempt to link Father Venedykt to Medvedchuk and his family through some form of familial relationship is nothing other than a means of inciting hatred and constructing the image of an enemy.
On November 24, 2023, the Rakhiv District Court of Zakarpattia Oblast delivered its verdict against Archimandrite Venedykt in the case of alleged "promotion of the communist regime."
By court decision, Archimandrite Venedykt was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment without confiscation of property for the Victory Day greeting posted on Facebook celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany, but was released from serving the sentence with a one-year probationary period.
The seized books and equipment were to be returned to him.
(Source: Court Decisions Registry)
In anti-Church media outlets, this event was reported with phrases expressing regret that the clergyman had "escaped prison."
(Source: "Glavcom") "Priest — godfather-in-law of Oksana Marchenko — who promoted communism escapes prison"
(Source: Zaxid.net) UOC MP priest escapes punishment for promoting communism in Zakarpattia. Vitaliy Khromei is the godfather-in-law of Viktor Medvedchuk's wife Oksana Marchenko
On March 14, 2024, the archimandrite received a fine under the second case, concerning alleged "unauthorized occupation of a land plot and unauthorized construction" of the church.
Following the searches of September 7, 2023, the National Police opened a case under Article 197-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, alleging that the monastery's residential block, which the monks had been constructing, "had crossed the boundary."
The Rakhiv District Court of Zakarpattia Oblast found Archimandrite Venedykt guilty in the criminal case.
The court imposed a fine of 60,000 hryvnias on the abbot.
On June 12, 2025, it became known that a court had ordered Archimandrite Venedykt (Khromei) of the Khust Eparchy of the UOC to be released from punishment in the criminal case for "dissemination of communist symbols."
The clergyman published the court ruling on his Facebook page.
By that point, a year and a half had passed since the sentencing, and the archimandrite had completed his one-year probationary period without any recorded "violations," on account of which he was released from further punishment.
It is notable that the court in Rakhiv dragged the proceedings out over five hearings and then denied the service's request. Father Venedykt's attorney filed an appeal, and as a result the clergyman was released from punishment.
КУ ст. 35 (свобода вероисповедания) · ЕСПЧ ст. 9 · Нормы ООН