According to the ruling published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, on 23 October 2025 a three-judge panel of the Dnipro Court of Appeal partly granted the appeals of Metropolitan Arseniy’s defence lawyers in case No. 243/4706/24 against a ruling of the Sloviansk City District Court of the Donetsk Region of 1 August 2025, which had extended his custody for 60 days without setting bail. The appeal court set that ruling aside and issued a new one.
In the new ruling, custody in Dnipro Penal Institution No. 4 is extended for 60 days, to 29 September 2025 inclusive (as the ruling’s text has it), as in the ruling set aside, and the alternative measure is bail of 500 subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons, 1,514,000 hryvnias. Had he been released on bail, the ruling required the defendant, among other things, to wear an electronic monitoring device and hand in his passports for travel abroad.
The new ruling took effect when announced and cannot be appealed in cassation; the court announced only its introductory and operative parts, with the full text due at 16:00 on 28 October.
As the Metropolitan’s lawyer told Suspilne Donbas, on 28 October, as the Metropolitan was leaving the remand prison, the SBU detained him on suspicion of justifying Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine (Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code). The lawyer called the detention groundless and said the defence would file appeals. The SBU directorate for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which the outlet approached, was not commenting on the situation.
The sources give the date the bail was posted differently: the lawyer says 28 October, while the Svyatogirsk Holy Dormition Lavra, whose press service Kramatorsk Post cites, says 27 October.
On 4 November 2025 the prosecutors said that the superior of the Svyatogirsk Lavra had been notified of a suspicion under parts 1 and 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code (justifying, recognising as lawful and denying the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine, and glorifying its participants) and had been taken into custody again; they described the bail set by the appeal court as paid. They also pointed to the presumption of innocence under Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
Sources: Unified State Register of Court Decisions, ruling of the Dnipro Court of Appeal No. 131246271 (introductory and operative parts), 23 October 2025; Suspilne Donbas, 29 October 2025; Kramatorsk Post, 30 October 2025; Office of the Prosecutor General, 4 November 2025.
