Ukrainian Catholic priest Bohdan Geleta describes 18 months of Russian captivity and torture

Ukrainian Catholic priest Redemptorist Father Bohdan Geleta says faith, prayer and a hope in Christ sustained him through more than a year and a half of Russian captivity and torture. He is now sharing his story so that others may know that God “loves us and wants to save us.” Father Geleta spoke in an hourlong interview with host Taras Babenchuk, which aired Aug. 20 on Zhyve TV, the television channel of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

In November 2022, Father Geleta and his fellow Redemptorist, Father Ivan Levitsky, were seized by Russian forces from their parish, the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Berdyansk, Ukraine. For most of their 18 months in captivity, their exact locations and conditions were largely unknown to Ukrainian and church officials. In late June, the two were among 10 prisoners returned to Ukraine. Both had lost significant weight, and their heads had been shaved.

Father Geleta said that he and Father Levitsky were subjected to both psychological and physical torture by Russian forces. This confirmed reports that Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, had received within the first weeks after the capture. The seizure took place nine months after Russian troops took over Berdyansk. Before that, the priests were able to continue their pastoral ministry under occupation, celebrating Divine Liturgy, praying and taking in refugees, Father Geleta said. The refugees, he said, were a reason they stayed, and the priests offered both spiritual and material support.

Father Geleta said prayers for peace had to be offered “very delicately,” because “it was dangerous to express such a sentiment there.” A car marked with the letter “Z,” a symbol of Russian troops in Ukraine, circled the church “several times,” which he described as “a sign” that occupying forces were watching.

On Nov. 16, 2022, Father Geleta had just returned from a burial and was preparing to celebrate Divine Liturgy, while Father Levitsky was about to hold an outdoor prayer gathering. Father Geleta recalled that two masked people entered the church. “I think they were military,” he said. “They were carrying weapons, and they came up and said in Russian: ‘Come with us.'” He said he asked in Ukrainian what they wanted, and they told him they did not understand Ukrainian. He then changed clothes, removed his vestments and went with them to the central pre-trial detention center in Berdyansk. There, he said, a report was drawn up stating that he and Father Levitsky had violated rules and needed permission from the authorities to pray in the city.

Father Geleta’s account places his arrest within a broader pattern. Russian occupation forces in Ukraine have sought to suppress all faiths except Russian-aligned Orthodox groups, according to the report, through destroying houses of worship, detaining, torturing and killing clergy, and creating laws that restrict religious practice. In Zaporizhzhia, the region surrounding Berdyansk, Russian occupation officials issued a written decree banning the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus and Caritas, the official humanitarian arm of the worldwide Catholic Church.

The priests were first held in damp basement cells, where Father Geleta said they “could also hear screams from our cell in the corridors” as other captives were tortured. One of his cellmates had been electrically shocked and forced to learn the Russian national anthem or face execution. The priests were first offered a chance to cooperate with employees of the FSB, Russia’s security bureau, which has in some cases sought to recruit religious leaders to strengthen Russia’s control of occupied areas of Ukraine. “They said if we agreed, they would show us around and tell us what we needed to do,” Father Geleta said. “But we refused.” The priests were also questioned on camera by Russian propagandists. Father Geleta said his interrogators “really don’t like the word ‘war,'” preferring the Kremlin’s term “special military operation” for attacks on Ukraine that began in 2014 and that two major reports, from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, have determined to constitute genocide.

Father Geleta said that “neither Father Ivan nor I compromised.” He said, “We just told the truth, that it was a war, that they were criminals, to their faces,” and that it was clear they would be “punished” for their stance. Showing a refusal to bend the truth under pressure, as the priests did, reflects speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Father Geleta said that after holding them for four months, their captors accused the priests of storing weapons in their church. They were to be tried on that charge and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Father Geleta described this as an accusation made against them, and the source does not report a verdict.

The two were then held for five more months at Russian penal colony No. 77 in Berdyansk. Father Geleta was moved to a solitary cell with a speaker that was “blaring Soviet songs all day long,” which he was forced to listen to.

Source: Read the original report