A priest of the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church, he served at the parish of Our Lady of Žyrovičy in Ivacevičy.

At the very end of October or in early November 2025, Bystrou was detained in connection with the “Belaruski Hajun” case, taken into custody, and held in a pre-trial detention centre until his trial.

In mid-April 2026, he was convicted under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (“facilitating extremist activity”) and sentenced to restricted freedom without referral to an open-type correctional facility — the so-called “home confinement” sentence. He was released in the courtroom.

Due to continued pressure on the parish in Ivacevičy, it was unable to complete re-registration in 2025 and filed an application for liquidation of the organisation.

Kiryl Loika (born 16 July 1980) is an Evangelical believer, a member of the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (CCECB), a musician, a member of the ChurchBrass brass orchestra founded in 1999 at a Minsk CCECB church, a translator of church hymns into Belarusian, and a father of many children. Together with his wife, he is raising six children.

Details of the charges against him are unknown. It is presumed that his criminal prosecution is connected with the so-called “Hajun case” – a monitoring project that tracked the movement of Russian troops and military equipment across the territory of Belarus, which has been used by Russia as a staging ground for its war against Ukraine.

Kiryl Loika was reportedly detained in 2025, held in pre-trial detention, and prosecuted under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (“facilitating extremist activity”). He was convicted by the Minsk City Court in 2026. The exact date of the judgment, the term of restriction of liberty, and other details of the court decision remain unknown. According to available information, he was sentenced to restriction of liberty without placement in an open-type correctional institution (“home chemistry”).

On 29 May 2026, Kiryl Loika was added to the list of Belarusian citizens, foreign citizens and stateless persons involved in extremist activities.

Aliaksandr Baranau (born 27 November 1975) is a Catholic believer, entrepreneur and public figure from Mazyr, originally from the village of Pienica, Kalinkavičy District, Homiel Region. He is the founder of the cultural space “Valley of Angels” and was connected with the Catholic parish of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Mazyr, which gathered in the building of a former Cistercian monastery. He participated in the parish’s church life and served as an altar server during liturgies.

Aliaksandr Baranau was detained on 5 January 2026 under Part 1 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (“assistance to extremist activity”). The criminal prosecution is linked to the so-called “Belaruski Hajun case” — a monitoring project that tracked the movement of Russian military equipment and troops across Belarusian territory. A few days after his detention, he was placed in Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 3 in Homiel, where he remains held pending trial.

On 28 May 2026, human rights defenders recognised him as a political prisoner.

Archpriest Andrey Lorgus is a well-known Moscow priest, practicing psychologist, anthropologist, rector of the Institute of Christian Psychology, author of books on church and psychological topics, as well as a lecturer and publicist. Since 2018, he has been a retired cleric of the Moscow City Diocese.

He publicly expressed an anti-war position. In 2022, he signed the open appeal of Russian Orthodox clergy calling for an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine (signature no. 22).

In September 2022, he condemned the mobilization, urging people “not to take part in the works of darkness.” In 2024, he appeared in a program devoted to the impact of the war on the Church.

On 23 December 2025, the Moscow diocesan court decided to defrock the priest. On 20 February 2026, by Decree No. U-02/23 signed by Patriarch Kirill, his deposition from the priesthood was carried out.

Aleksei Jagiello, a preacher of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Homiel, a Christian activist and promoter of a healthy lifestyle, and a physician by education. Born: 27 January 1984.

In November 2025 it became known that he had been convicted under the article on “facilitating extremist activity.” The Homiel Regional Court found the religious figure guilty under parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code. Details of the charges are unknown. It is presumed that he was prosecuted in connection with the so-called “Belarusian Hajun case”— a monitoring project that tracked the movement of Russian military equipment and troops across the territory of Belarus. The exact sentence is also unclear: he was given either imprisonment or restriction of freedom with assignment to an open-type correctional facility.

On 28 November 2025, he was added to the list of Belarusian citizens, foreign citizens and stateless persons “involved in extremist activity.”

He is detained at the Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 3, Homiel, vul. Knižnaja 1A, 246003, Belarus.

Pastor Pavel Zayakin, born in 1966. Since 1991, he has been an activist of the scouting movement in Siberia. From 1996 to 2017 he lived in the Republic of Khakassia, where he worked on establishing Lutheran congregations. In 1997 he was ordained as a deacon of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. From 2018 to 2020 he served in Ukraine, after which he returned to Siberia.

After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he spoke out against the war — delivered anti-war sermons and published anti-war texts on Facebook. As a result, he faced threats from the security services and was forced to emigrate to Estonia in 2022.

On 21 November 2025, Pastor Pavel Zayakin’s name appeared on the updated list of “foreign agents.”

Priest Walerian Dunin-Barkowski, born in 1977, cleric of the St. Nicholas Parish of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe.

From 1994 to 1998, he served as a chanter and reader at the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhovo, Moscow. From 1999 to 2010, he served as an altar attendant and chanter at the Guslitsy Transfiguration Monastery in the Moscow region. Since 2018, he has been living in Germany. In 2019, he completed the catechetical courses of the Berlin-German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. On February 6, 2022, he was ordained deacon by Metropolitan John of Dubna (Renneteau) in the city of Trier, and on June 2, 2022, he was ordained priest in Paris.

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has publicly spoken out against the war. In 2023, he became the founder and chairman of the board of the project “Friede Allen e.V.” (“Peace to All”).

On 15 August 2025, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation declared the organization Friede Allen e.V. (“Peace to All”) an “undesirable organization.” Information about this appeared in the official register of the Ministry of Justice on 16 September 2025. As the head of the organization, Dunin-Barkowski faces up to six years of imprisonment under Russian law.

Andrei Voronin — a native of Tolyatti, is a Russian Orthodox believer, activist, and monarchist with a long criminal history. He has previously been prosecuted under several administrative and criminal charges, including drug possession, theft, violent offenses, and incitement of hatred. At various times, he lived in Moscow and in the village of Glukhovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, near the Diveevo Monastery, which he frequently visited.

Voronin is currently incarcerated. In 2020, following a conflict with local authorities over fire safety violations and a post he made on the social network VKontakte, he was charged under terrorism-related legislation and sentenced to 12 years in prison. An additional 2.5 years were later added to his sentence after a physical altercation with a prison staff member.

In December 2024, new criminal charges were brought against him under Article 205 Part 1 (Justification of terrorist activity) and Article 207.3 Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation or other official bodies). The charges stem from conversations he had with cellmates in Penal Colony No. 4 (IK-4) in the Pskov region. These conversations were recorded during his transfer from a prison in the Vladimir region to the Pskov facility in late May and early June 2023, while he was being held in Pretrial Detention Center No. 1 (SIZO-1) and later quarantined in the colony.

According to the independent media outlet Mediazona, the prosecution relied on hidden camera footage, capturing Voronin’s comments on the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in the 1990s, Russia’s involvement in the war in Syria, and the invasion of Ukraine — including the phrase: “To stop the war, someone needs to shoot Putin.”

The article also cites testimony from fellow inmate Valery Frolov, who shared a quarantine cell with Voronin in IK-4:

“He didn’t hide his opinion about what’s happening in our country. When we talked about the ‘special military operation,’ he said Russia attacked the khokhols [a derogatory term for Ukrainians]. That made my skin crawl. He’s not pretending. He’s an enemy, a saboteur, a goddamn rail-layer! The country didn’t give him what he wanted. But he’s mentally sound. He’s an educated man, knows the Bible well. Not an idiot.”

Voronin’s defense argued that his statements lacked public intent and that much of the recording was a result of provocation by prison officials.

On 17 July 2025, the First Western District Military Court in St. Petersburg, presided over by Judge Yuri Kozlov, sentenced Voronin to 6 years in a high-security penal colony and a fine. Taking into account his previous sentence, he is expected to serve another 10 years in total, the first three of which will be in prison.

Mailing address for letters:

(please confirm current format with Russian prison regulations before sending):

Voronin Andrey Olegovich (Воронин Андрей Олегович), Born: 1990

180000, Псков, улица Некрасова, дом 39, ФКУ СИЗО-1 УФСИН России по Псковской области

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Archpriest Vladimir Kuzmitsky is the former rector of the “Pantanassa” Church in Srednyaya Akhtuba, Volgograd Oblast.

He recorded an anti-war statement in which he anathematized all those who started the war. This led to threats of criminal prosecution and suspension from ministry, forcing him to emigrate to Georgia. There, he began working with the anti-war project Peace to All, using its platforms to speak out against the war.

On 11 July 2025, Kuzmitsky received a letter from the Kalach Diocese of the Volgograd Metropolis stating that the ruling bishop, Bishop Ioann (Kovalenko) of Kalach and Pallasovka, had approved a decision to depose him from the priesthood for “leaving the diocese” and “ceasing communication with the ruling hierarch.”

Ksenia Luchenko – a well-known Orthodox journalist, author of the Telegram channel “Orthodoxy and Zombies” and the book “With Good Intentions: The Russian Church and Power from Gorbachev to Putin.” She has consistently spoken out against the war in the media and on her social media platforms. She has written extensively about clergy in the Russian Orthodox Church who are persecuted for their anti-war stance, as well as about the Church leadership’s support for the war. Due to the risk of persecution, she was forced to leave Russia.

She has been regularly subjected to harassment and threats by pro-war Orthodox figures.

On May 16, 2025, she was designated a “foreign agent” by the Russian Ministry of Justice.