Metropolitan Leonid Gorbachev of the Russian Orthodox Church, formerly the Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, has filed a denunciation against the rector of the church in the Spanish city of Vigo — Archpriest Vasily Savchuk. In November 2025, he published online a recording of a private conversation between the archpriest and a parishioner.

In the audio, the priest explains why he does not commemorate Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) in his prayers, noting that in the Greek and Romanian Orthodox traditions this is not obligatory. He also emphasized that he does not read the “Prayer for Holy Rus’” (note: a prayer “for victory” and “for preserving the unity of Holy Rus’,” understood as Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus as a single spiritual-historical space — composed and approved by Patriarch Kirill in 2022), preferring instead to ask God for peace for Ukraine.

When his interlocutor attempted to justify the war by saying that “Russia is fighting satanism in Ukraine,” the archpriest responded sharply:

Watch the film “20 Days in Mariupol,” which won an Oscar. Talk to the people of Mariupol who lost their homes and loved ones. Then you will forget both about satanism and about ‘Russian Orthodoxy’,” said Vasily Savchuk.

After publishing the recording, Metropolitan Leonid called the priest “a Russophobe and a traitor in a cassock,” accusing at the same time the leadership of the Western European Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate of allegedly concealing such views from Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev).

The case of Archpriest Vasily Savchuk fits into a broader trend: the Russian Orthodox Church consistently persecutes those clergy who publicly condemn Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine or refuse to support the militaristic rhetoric of the Moscow Patriarchate, applying repressive measures against them — from disciplinary penalties to bans on ministry.