The DESS addressed the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church following the fire at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has appealed to the church leadership, the clergy, monks, and laypersons of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church following the fire at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The agency stated that parishioners of the UOC are allegedly being misled by claims that the state intends to confiscate churches and property, and emphasized that the authorities are not requiring the UOC to transfer to another church structure.

The statement was published on June 15, 2026, following the shelling of Kyiv by Russian troops, which resulted in a fire at the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. In the text of the statement, the State Security Service called on representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to “withdraw from the Moscow Patriarchate,” which, according to the agency, “has long justified evil, infanticide, and blasphemy.”

In an appeal addressed to “our Ukrainian brothers and sisters—the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the agency stated that reports of the state’s intention to confiscate the churches and property of the UOC are false. The DESS also noted that the state does not require the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to become part of another church.

As a reminder, Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), previously officially stated that his agency does not grant exemptions from mobilization to the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).