On 1 October 2025 the Sloviansk City District Court of the Donetsk Region considered, in case No. 243/4706/24, a defence motion to recuse the judge hearing the case, and rejected it. The accused in the case is Metropolitan Arseniy, who has been held in custody since April 2024. The defence had made the motion orally at the preparatory hearing of 24 September. According to the ruling, the defence considered the judge biased, among other things because two of the accused’s lawyers were absent from that hearing and the court had not granted a recusal sought against the prosecutor.
The court held that the defence’s disagreement with the judge’s procedural decisions is not a ground for recusal and that the defence had provided no evidence of bias. It noted that three defence lawyers took part in the hearing; that neither the recusal motion nor the case file contained anything to suggest that the absent lawyers had not been properly notified; that one of them did not appear and gave no reason, and that the other left the hearing because of an air-raid alert where she was and told the court so. The ruling cannot be appealed.
On 2 October 2025 the Svyatogirsk Holy Dormition Lavra, where he is superior, reported on the Metropolitan’s health. According to its statement on its website, on 30 September, after his health had worsened, he was taken to one of the hospitals in Dnipro for an examination of the heart and blood vessels and a check by a cardiologist and an arrhythmologist. The arrhythmologist, the Lavra said, found an operation on the heart necessary, and the doctors recommended a comprehensive check by specialists in other fields.
On 1 October, the Lavra said, the Metropolitan became unwell during a further preparatory hearing; at the defence’s request the hearing was interrupted and moved to 3 October. Hromadske retold the Lavra’s statement on 2 October and reported that the court had rejected the defence’s request to recuse the judge.
Sources: ruling No. 130634800, Unified State Register of Court Decisions (YouControl copy), 1 October 2025; Svyatogirsk Holy Dormition Lavra, 2 October 2025; Hromadske, 2 October 2025.
