Ihor Slobodian

Ihor Slobodian, former subdeacon of the Intercession Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Khmelnytskyi.

On April 2, 2023, with the involvement of the authorities of the city of Khmelnytskyi, a large-scale provocation was organized. It was synchronized with the attacks on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and was intended to justify pre-prepared repressive measures against believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

During the Sunday Divine Liturgy, a local provocateur, Artur Ananiev, entered the Intercession Cathedral of the UOC wearing a military uniform.

He was not an active serviceman. Although he had once been at the front, at that moment he was a civilian, merely dressed as a soldier.

Right in the middle of the service, Ananiev began dousing parishioners and clergy with an unknown liquid from a bottle he had brought with him in advance. He shouted, lunged at the deacon who was reading the Gospel at that moment, and tore the liturgical vestments of a clergyman.

Such behavior has clear legal definitions and corresponds to specific articles of the administrative and criminal codes, under which Ananiev was the offender and should have been held accountable. But not in present-day Ukraine.

At that moment, the actions of the offender were stopped by the cathedral’s subdeacon, Ihor Slobodian. Together with parishioners, he detained Ananiev and escorted him out of the church.

Believers called the police. The law enforcement officers who arrived at the scene immediately classified the provocateur’s actions as a criminal offense under Article 180 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – obstruction of the performance of a religious rite.

However, the damage had already been done.

Ananiev’s accomplices published an edited video of the provocateur’s detention inside the church. A group of anti-church activists presented the detention as an “attack by priests on a serviceman inside a church”.

Just a few hours later, a pre-organized crowd seized the cathedral.

(Source: DOZOR project on First Cossack)

For their attempt to detain Ananiev, patrol police officers received reprimands and were suspended from duty.

On April 5, 2023, subdeacon Ihor Slobodian was placed on a wanted list.

He was charged under Part 1 of Article 125 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for allegedly inflicting bodily harm on Artur Ananiev.

(Source: Censor.net)

On April 20, 2023, the Khmelnytskyi City District Court imposed a preventive measure on Ihor Slobodian in the form of a personal obligation.

(Source: HM-inside)

On May 10, 2024, the court found Slobodian guilty and sentenced him to one year and six months of probation supervision, as well as ordered him to pay 37,924 hryvnias for “damage to health” and 50,000 hryvnias in moral compensation.