The court hearing on the DESS lawsuit against the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been postponed until September

The Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kyiv has ruled to postpone the hearing of the lawsuit filed by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) against the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) until September 10, 2026. According to Archpriest Nikita Chekman, a lawyer for the UOC, the next hearing is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.

The legal proceedings, initiated by the DESS in September 2025 with a demand to dissolve the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC, generated significant public attention. On the day of the hearing, July 22, 2026, a prayer vigil was held by believers outside the courthouse. During the proceedings, the court read out information regarding the receipt of approximately 10,000 applications from citizens wishing to join the proceedings as third parties.

The atmosphere around the courthouse was tense: according to a source, supporters of the OCU staged a provocation by pouring an unknown liquid near the worshippers; however, the believers of the UOC refrained from conflict and continued reading psalms. The Church’s defense team, in turn, filed a counterclaim demanding that the actions of the civil service leadership be declared unlawful and that the expert review of the UOC’s Charter be annulled.

As a reminder, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has expressed its support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) amid the ongoing legal proceedings stemming from a lawsuit filed by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), aimed at dissolving the Kyiv Metropolis. Corresponding appeals from Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria and a number of metropolitans of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church were submitted to the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kyiv and the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC.