Head of DESS accuses UOC of delaying courts on secession from ROC

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) accuses the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of delaying the trial. This is a case concerning the order of the State Department of Ethnic and Religious Freedom to withdraw the Metropolis from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

According to Ukrinform, the head of the State Emergency Service, Viktor Yelenskyy, said at a press conference that the service filed a lawsuit against the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC after it refused to comply with the order. According to Yelensky, this order demanded that the Metropolis withdraw from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Yelensky emphasized that the court has not yet begun to consider the case on the merits. «The lawyers of the Kyiv Metropolis are taking large-scale measures to delay the process, because when the case comes to consideration on the merits, they will not be able to explain why the Kyiv Metropolis spends so much effort and money, in particular, pays for the services of foreign lawyers, to remain part of the Moscow Patriarchate,» Ukrinform quoted the head of the civil service as saying. He also added that the relevant foreign lawyers are registered on «lobbyist websites.»

Earlier, the head of the Synodal Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Klyment (Vecheria) , said that the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) continues to ignore the official statements of the UOC regarding the severance of relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. The hierarch claims that the relevant decision was made back in 2022 at the Council in Feofaniya, but the State Service was not satisfied with these decisions.