Pastor NIKOLAY ROMANYUK, Evangelical Christians (Moscow, Russia)

Nikolay Romanyuk, born in 1962, is the senior pastor of the Pentecostal Church “Holy Trinity Church” and a father of nine children.

He opposed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In September 2022, Nikolay Romanyuk made a strong condemnation of participation in military actions, stating, “This is not our war.”

On 18 October 2024, he was detained. Around 6:20 AM, a search was conducted at his home. Searches were also carried out at the homes of his relatives—the Repin family, the Zhukov family, as well as at the House of Prayer in Popovka and in Volokolamsk. The searches were based on a criminal case against the presbyter “for expressing his pacifist stance on 25 October 2022,” initiated under Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code (Public calls for activities aimed at undermining state security).

“There was no search at the home of Ilya and Sergey Romanyuk. However, special forces broke in, forced the young men to lie on the floor, where they remained for 12 hours, one and a half of which were spent outdoors in light indoor clothing, barefoot on the ground. Under the aim of assault rifles. The special forces entered the homes using a shield-tandem tactic, where one fighter followed another under the protection of an armored shield. In some houses, door frames were broken. The men were forced to lie on the ground with their hands behind their heads,” noted Roman Zhukov, the pastor’s son-in-law, who is also a presbyter at Holy Trinity Church.

According to him, during the searches, all digital media (flash drives, disks, computers, laptops) and any documents deemed necessary were confiscated. All of Maksim Repin’s credit cards, his mother’s pension card, and passports were taken.

“Nikolay Nikolaevich [Romanyuk] was asked to make some statements on camera. He refused.”

It became known that during the search, the pastor was beaten, despite offering no resistance to the security forces. As lawyer Anatoly Pchelintsev stated, pastor Romanyuk «in the presence of witnesses received a strong blow to the head with a rifle butt, although he did not understand what was happening and offered no resistance. From that moment on, Nikolay Nikolaevich lost hearing in one ear. Already in the pre-trial detention center, he suffered a mini-stroke, one arm is poorly responsive, he lost 30 kg in weight.»

Around 6:00 PM, he was put on a bus and taken away. On 20 October 2024, at a closed court hearing, he was sentenced to detention until 16 December 2024. On 11 December 2024, his detention was extended until 16 February 2025. On 14 February 2025, the term was extended until 17 April 2025. As noted by the pastor’s daughter:

This time, dad did not remain silent, he was given the floor. And he said that war is always bad, and God’s word does not allow us to kill people! No matter which side, in which country.

On 5 March 2025, the Moscow Regional Court considered a petition to change the pastor’s preventive measure. The defense requested to change the preventive measure to house arrest, but the court upheld the detention.