The Ukrainian government has issued a reservation from mobilization to all clergymen

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has allowed all clergymen to be issued a reservation from mobilization, while religious organizations have been classified as critically important. This was reported by the Judicial-Legal Gazette on December 27.

It is specified that all conscripted clerics will be subject to the reservation according to the list of positions approved by the state service for ethno-politics and freedom of conscience (DESS). Thus, clergymen have been equated to the ultimate beneficial owners of critically important enterprises.

Also, the resolution of the Government of Ukraine introduced amendments, according to which legal entities - religious organizations, according to the list and criteria approved by the DESS, will now be classified as critical for the functioning of the economy and ensuring the life of the population. Thus, they have been equated to representations of donor agencies and executors of international technical assistance projects.

At the same time, the clergyman's deferment will be canceled in the case of dismissal from his position upon an electronic application of the DESS to cancel the reservation of a militarily liable worker, formed on the basis of information provided by a legal entity - religious organization.

Earlier, on December 13, in Ukraine, employees of the territorial acquisition center (TAC) kidnapped the secretary of the Khustka diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) Ivan Roizman. The TV channel, citing the words of the clergyman's son, writes that representatives of the military recruitment center took his father the day before, on December 12. According to him, the kidnapping happened for the second time.

Before that, on November 4, the archpriest of the canonical UOC, 54-year-old Oleg Melnyk, was forcibly mobilized and beaten in the TCC. According to him, the man was stopped at a checkpoint and taken to the TCC, where he stayed "for more than a day without food, his phone was taken away, depriving him of the possibility to contact his family".

Martial law in Ukraine has been in effect since February 2022. At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (powers expired in May) signed a decree on general mobilization. Later, the Verkhovna Rada repeatedly extended its effect. Most men aged between 18 and 60 are forbidden to leave the country.