Earlier in the day, some Ukrainian news outlets reported that metropolitan Pavel was put on a two months' house arrest, which was later disproved.
The court rejected the defense's request to let metropolitan Pavel attend services in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Strana news outlet reported. At the same time, he was allowed to record videos addressing the believers, which the prosecution sought to ban.
Metropolitan Pavel will stay under house arrest at his home in the Kiev region, the media said. Meanwhile, metropolitan Pavel said that his home in the Kiev region has no heating, water or electricity and described the court's decision as politically motivated.
"There are no grounds ... I didn't do anything. I know it's a political order, because I was threatened. The Security Service of Ukraine summoned me to the director of the museum, they said that they had to open a case against [me] ... I know who it is, but I won't look into it — it's not my way," metropolitan Pavel said in a video posted by Ukrainian media.
On Saturday morning, metropolitan Pavel was presented with official suspicions of "collaboration with Russia and inter-religious incitement" after Ukrainian authorities conducted searches in his house. He then said that the Ukrainian authorities had sent him under house arrest.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed his indictment under two articles of the criminal code, specifically "violation of citizens' equality based on their race, nationality or religious preferences" and "justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants."
Tensions between Kiev and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) escalated after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. On March 10, 2023, UOC monks were ordered to leave the monastery of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, jurisdiction over which was divided between a Ukrainian cultural organization and the UOC, by March 29 for violating the terms of an agreement on the use of state property.
Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said the monks could stay in the Lavra if they joined the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), a decision that may be "stimulated through the joint work of specialists and law enforcement officers."