The Court of Appeal recognized the examination of the charter of the UOC as illegal and annulled the DESS order

on April 6, 2026, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in case #320/26027/23, effectively annulling the results of the earlier religious expertise. According to the press service of the UOC, the court recognized the actions of the State Service of Ukraine on Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) as unlawful due to gross procedural violations.

The main reason for the annulment of the decision was the unlawful inactivity of the DESS, which ignored the Church’s application to disqualify the members of the expert group. The Court emphasized that the absence of a detailed recusal procedure in the national legislation does not exempt the authority from the obligation to respect the principles of impartiality and fairness. The ruling stated that such violations make the examination procedure “defective”, which automatically calls into question the legitimacy of all subsequent decisions of the authority.

As a result of the proceedings, the court formally annulled the DESS order No. NN-8/11 of 27.01.2023 and recognized the actions of the head of the service Viktor Yelensky in approving the expert opinion as illegal. The panel of judges concluded that significant violations of the procedure directly affected the legality of the final result. The decision of the Sixth administrative court of appeal entered into legal force from the moment of its adoption.

We will remind, earlier we reported that the Supreme Court of Ukraine in a panel of judges of the Cassation Administrative Court began consideration of the appeal of Koretskyi Holy Trinity Women’s Stavropegial Monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate.