A Ukrainian politician revealed details about the missed opportunity to obtain the Tomos in 2008

Ukraine could have obtained autocephaly and patriarchal status as early as 2008, but this historic opportunity was lost due to political interference. According to Viktor Baloha, the former head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, who oversaw the complex negotiations with Constantinople, the failure of diplomatic efforts between Ukraine and the Patriarchate of Constantinople was the fault of former President Viktor Yushchenko and former head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) Filaret Denisenko. He spoke about this in an interview with RBC-Ukraine’s .

According to Baloga’s statement, they had managed to agree on a concept for uniting the Ukrainian churches under the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, under which the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kyiv and All Ukraine, would temporarily serve as head, while Filaret Denisenko would serve as deputy. All parties had given their preliminary consent, and Patriarch Bartholomew’s visit to Kyiv for the celebration of the 1,020th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ was supposed to be the decisive step toward obtaining autocephaly.

However, during the final meeting at the Presidential Secretariat, the process was derailed. As Baloha recalls, after Bartholomew confirmed his readiness to grant Ukraine a patriarchate in the coming months, President Viktor Yushchenko issued an ultimatum—that Filaret Denisenko, the head of the unrecognized Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP), be appointed patriarch of the newly formed structure. This provoked a sharp reaction from the Patriarch of Constantinople, who pointed out to the head of state that government interference in church affairs was unacceptable.

“Yushchenko says: ‘Your Holiness, you are so kind and good, but I have a request—appoint Filaret as patriarch.’ At that, Bartholomew stands up and (hits) the table with his staff! He had been speaking Greek the whole time, but then he said in Russian: ‘Yushchenko, mind your own business. Spirituality is my domain. Don’t meddle in it!’” the former head of the Secretariat recounted.

According to the politician, Patriarch Bartholomew left the country deeply upset, predicting that Ukraine would face severe trials because of this missed opportunity. Baloha emphasized that if the president had shown restraint back then, church independence could have been achieved ten years earlier than it was in January 2019.

“At the airport, he banged his head against a flower bed, ‘kissed the ground,’ covered in clay… Then he stood up and said: ‘Today, the greatest mistake in the history of Ukraine has occurred. Today we missed our chance because of incomprehensible ambitions to establish a patriarchate in Ukraine. Great problems await you. Wars await you,” — the politician quotes Patriarch Bartholomew.

As a reminder, we previously reported that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople had been making active efforts to recognize Ukrainian schismatic structures and weaken the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church as early as 2008, ten years before the official granting of the Tomos.