Russian drone strike kills rector of Moscow-linked church in Kherson Oblast

Archpriest Heorhii Horbenko, the rector of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Orlove in Kherson Oblast, has been killed in a Russian drone attack.

Source: Ivan Hordiienko, rector of the Holy Kasperivka Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP); press service of the Kherson Eparchy (diocese) of the UOC-MP

Quote from Hordiienko: "Archpriest Heorhii Horbenko, the rector of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Orlove, was killed in a Russian drone strike on the territory of his parish on 5 January 2026."

Details: The eparchy noted that the priest had been serving at the Church of the Intercession in Orlove and had been killed while he was on the parish grounds.

The Kherson Eparchy expressed condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased and called on believers to pray for the priest.

For reference: Archpriest Heorhii Horbenko was born on 10 February 1961 in Kherson. He served as a sacristan at St Catherine's Cathedral in Kherson from 1995. He was ordained as a deacon on 7 March 1998 and as a priest (Bishop Iov of Kherson and Tavria) on 26 April 1998.

He later served as rector of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Velyka Kardashynka and the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Zavodivka. Archbishop Ioann of Kherson and Tavria awarded him a pectoral cross on 19 March 2007.

Horbenko was transferred from the Nova Kakhovka Eparchy to the Kherson Eparchy and appointed to pastoral service at St Catherine the Great Martyr Church in the village of Rozdolne and the Church of Saints Joachim and Anna in the village of Preobrazhenka on 1 April 2011.

He was appointed rector of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Orlove on 18 February 2020, and shortly before Easter he was elevated to the rank of archpriest by Metropolitan Ioann of Kherson and Tavria.

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