On December 14, 2022, Ukraine transferred the UOC priest to the Russian side as part of the exchange. Andrey Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, spoke about this on the air of a single telethon, Hromadske reports.

“The Russians in their Telegram channels reported that they had taken a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who in Ukraine received a sentence for high treason. I will say that it was not without his help in this context that a US citizen returned to Ukraine today, and now he can return home,” Yusov said.

So, on December 14, another exchange of prisoners took place, in which Ukraine returned home 64 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the bodies of 4 dead.

Earlier, Russian media reported that Ukraine had handed over to the Russian Federation the rector of the Lisichansky Cathedral, Archpriest Andrei Pavlenko.