4 years for anti-war sermon. Court sentences evangelical pastor
Judge Yevgeny Parshin of the Balashikha City Court found 63-year-old Pentecostal Church minister Nikolai Romanyuk guilty under the article on calls for activities directed against state security, сообщает SotaVision.
According to investigators, Romanyuk called for this in September 2022 in an anti-war sermon he posted on YouTube, where he compared participation in the war to drug use:
"I would say this: when you're offered a fix, when you're offered a bottle of alcohol, or when you're given a summons to go into combat—it's the same sin, the same drug, the same Satan. And it's a religious person."
Nikolai Romanyuk is the senior pastor of the evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity in Balashikha and the father of nine children. писал His son-in-law reported on his Telegram channel that on October 18, 2024, his home was searched early in the morning. The priest was detained violently: security forces burst into the house, using a bulletproof shield as cover, and forced the men to the ground face down with their hands behind their heads. Documents and equipment were confiscated. Romanyuk spent the entire time in pretrial detention, where his health deteriorated.
In its last word Nikolai Romanyuk did not admit his guilt and did not retract what he said in his sermon: "Yes, I gave a sermon in which I touched on military, albeit forced, murder. I stand by what I said. I expressed my personal views and attitudes toward the taking of human life. This is my personal position as a priest. I stand by my sermon."
Priests who spoke out against the war are being persecuted by the state in various ways. For example, in mid-August, St. Petersburg priest Ivan Kumoyarov recognized foreign agent. Another church minister from the Novosibirsk region deprived san.