Poltava court upholds mobilization of Protestant pastor
The Poltava District Administrative Court upheld the actions of recruitment center officials who mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine the pastor of the Bethany Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith in Horishni Plavni, according to the Poltavshchyna news outlet.
In October 2005, the man was sentenced to six years in prison for intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm. He was released on parole in September 2009, and in 2019 he was removed from the military register because of his conviction for a serious crime. That same year, he became a deacon at the Bethany Pentecostal congregation in Horishni Plavni, and in the summer of 2024 he became its pastor.
In September 2024, the pastor updated his personal information through the Reserve+ app. In July 2025, recruitment center officials entered information in the conscription register stating that he had violated military registration rules at his registered place of residence in the Yavoriv district of the Lviv region and referred the matter to police. On July 8, 2025, during a document check in the Lviv region, recruitment center officers took the man to a military recruitment office, where he underwent a military medical examination and was issued a mobilization order.
The mobilized pastor was initially assigned as a trainee to a multiple-launch rocket artillery unit, and in March 2026 he was transferred to serve as a duty officer with a support unit. In court, he sought to have his conscription annulled and to be discharged from military service, citing his religious beliefs and the fact that he had previously been removed from the military register.
The court rejected his claims, pointing to legislative changes that took effect on May 18, 2024, which abolished the rule allowing people convicted of serious crimes to be removed from the military register. The judge also cited the Supreme Court’s legal position that alternative non-military service is available only as a substitute for compulsory military service and does not apply to mobilization during martial law. The court therefore dismissed the lawsuit in full.
As the UOJ previously reported, a court in the Lviv region sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to five years in prison for refusing to fight.
