The Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has filed a lawsuit against the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience

The Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court, demanding that the establishment of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) be declared illegal and that the agency be dissolved. Thiswas reported by the UOC’s attorney, Archpriest Nikita Chekman.

As the lawyer explained, the plaintiff’s main claim is that the procedure for establishing the government agency was violated. According to the Metropolis’s legal department, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine granted the DESS the authority to formulate state policy in the religious sphere, which, under current legislation, may be vested exclusively in ministries. Church representatives claim that such actions by the government contradict the Constitution of Ukraine.

The legal proceedings stem from a protracted conflict between the church and government agencies. The State Service for Religious Affairs has repeatedly conducted audits of the Metropolis’s affiliations and initiated legal measures aimed at dissolving the legal entity and seizing church property. In their complaint, lawyers for the UOC insist that the Cabinet of Ministers’ resolutions regulating the activities of the State Service for Religious Affairs must be declared invalid.

As a reminder, on April 6, 2026, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Case No. 320/26027/23, effectively annulling the results of a previous religious studies expert assessment conducted by the State Expert Service.