Archpriest of the Canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) Oleg Melnikov was forcibly mobilized and beaten at the military enlistment office. This was announced by the Union of Orthodox Journalists in its Telegram channel.
According to him, a 54-year-old man was stopped at a checkpoint and taken to the military enlistment office, where he stayed "for more than a day without food, his phone was taken away, making it impossible to contact his family." "According to a video posted online, one of the workers of the shopping mall (an analogue of the military enlistment office - approx. TASS) beat the priest, after which his blood pressure rose, the message says. "The police officers who arrived at the scene accepted a statement from the victim, but despite this, the archpriest of the UOC was not released, and he was unable to hold Sunday liturgy."
Since February 2022, general mobilization has been announced in Ukraine and has been repeatedly extended. On May 18 of this year, the law on tightening mobilization came into force in the country. However, in recent months, the pace of replenishment of the Armed Forces has slowed down again and the issue of a critical shortage of people in the army has arisen. Against this background, the staff of military enlistment offices intensified raids on public places in order to detain men, using force even more.
On October 29, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Alexander Litvinenko said that the authorities intend to recruit another 160 thousand people into the armed forces, although the military names larger numbers. Zelensky said on October 30 that in some areas the ratio of the number of troops is one to eight in favor of the Russian Federation.
According to TASS materials