The Russian Orthodox Church has assessed the canonical status of the decisions made by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the Synodal Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, commented on the current status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), emphasizing that the decisions of the 2022 council regarding independence from the Moscow Patriarchate remain ambiguous from a canonical standpoint.

In an interview with RTVI, Kipshidze stated that the Feofanievsky Council, which proclaimed the UOC’s autonomy, was held under pressure from the Kyiv authorities. According to the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, the resolutions adopted at that council raise questions among church leadership in Moscow.

At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church acknowledges that there are differing views on the situation within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to Kipshidze, there are still bishops within the UOC who continue to commemorate the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, considering ecclesiastical unity with the Russian Orthodox Church to be an “absolute value” that transcends political disagreements and military conflicts.

“The authorities in Kyiv forced the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to hold the so-called Theophany Council, which adopted decisions that are quite controversial from a canonical standpoint and still require some assessment. At the same time, we are also well aware that within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church there are believers and bishops who commemorate His Holiness the Patriarch and view the unity of the Church as a kind of absolute value that transcends divisions between states, wars, political strife, and everything associated with them,” noted Vakhtang Kipshidze.

As a reminder, earlier, the Greek theologian and hieromonk Nikitas Pantokratorinos sharply criticized the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, headed by Metropolitan Onufry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. According to the expert, several years after the Council in Theophania, the canonical status of this religious organization remains undefined, and claims of its complete autonomy lack legal validation within the Orthodox world.