On the evening of March 19, Yurii Sheliazhenko was walking through the streets of Kyiv when he was seized by military personnel and taken into custody. He is a Quaker. He is a conscientious objector. And he is now being held in military detention.

Sheliazhenko is the executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and has been a consistent, principled voice for peace throughout the war. He has not been silent about his convictions — he has argued, publicly and at personal risk, that conscientious objection is a human right that does not disappear in wartime. For that, he has now been detained.

Quakers in Britain are calling for his immediate release and for the rights of conscientious objectors to be respected. The Quaker tradition has always held that war is incompatible with the gospel, and that the state does not have the right to compel people to kill. That conviction is not popular in a country fighting for its survival. But it is, Quakers would argue, no less true for being unpopular.

This is a story that sits uncomfortably with easy narratives on all sides. It does not fit neatly into the framework of "supporting Ukraine" or "opposing Russia." It is a story about a man who believes that peace is possible, that killing is wrong, and that his conscience is answerable to God rather than to the state. UK churches, whatever their views on the war, should be aware of his situation — and should pray for him.