Occupiers accuse abducted priest Kostiantyn Maksymov of “espionage in favor of Ukraine”

Kostiantyn Maksymov, a priest of the UOC-MP from Tokmak, who was abducted last year, is accused by the occupiers of “spying in favor of Ukraine” under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code.

This is reported by the “Prosecutor’s Office of Zaporizhzhia Region”, according to ZMINA.

According to the report, from April 2022 to February 2023, a resident of Tokmak, Father Maksymov, transmitted through messengers to an SBU officer the coordinates of the location of Russian air defense systems deployed in the city and region.

“After the approval of the indictment, the criminal case was sent to the Zaporizhzhia Regional Court for consideration of the case on its merits,” the statement said.

The priest of the UOC-MP, Kostiantyn Maksymov, who served at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the occupied Tokmak, was abducted by the occupiers on May 16, 2023. He left the occupied Tokmak with a volunteer humanitarian mission through Crimea. At 10:27, the man informed his friends by phone that he had arrived at the checkpoint (presumably in the city of Chongar). According to the mother of the priest, Svitlana Maksymova, he could have been taken off the flight by Russian military personnel and taken to a filtration camp in Djankoy. For a long time, nothing was known about his fate and whereabouts.

The Human Rights Center ZMINA, together with Ukrainian and international partners, documents cases of enforced disappearances, detentions, and abductions of civilians in temporarily occupied territories. If your relatives have disappeared or you are concerned that they may have been abducted, please write to our email address es@humanrights.org.ua. Our representative will contact you.

The information obtained with the consent of the applicant will be used to appeal to national and international investigative bodies, as well as international organizations, for inclusion of this information in periodic reports, including to the UN Committee against Torture, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Events in Ukraine, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the International Criminal Court, etc., for documentation and further investigation of war crimes committed in Ukraine and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Source: Religious Information Service of Ukraine