Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Commission on Religious Affairs, accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of attempting to defend the Church's rights in court

The Chairman of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Viktor Yelensky, stated that the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is deliberately dragging out legal proceedings related to its failure to comply with the order to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The agency is demanding that the UOC withdraw from the Moscow Patriarchate, but the metropolitanate’s leadership is challenging these demands in court, employing various legal tactics. This was reported by Espreso.tv.

According to a statement by Viktor Yelensky, the measures ordered by the State Security Service (DESS) include the withdrawal of all dioceses and monasteries from the ROC, as well as a public renunciation by the Primate of the UOC of his membership in the Holy Synod of the ROC. The head of the service emphasized that the state’s goal is to end the influence of an organization that is “directly associated with the aggressor.”

At the same time, Yelensky added that the metropolis’s lawyers are attempting to block consideration of the cases on their merits by involving a large number of citizens as third parties. Yelensky also noted that the law governing the activities of religious organizations in Ukraine “is balanced and democratic, as the final decision on all contentious issues rests with the judiciary.”

As a reminder, we previously reported that the court hearing regarding the lawsuit to dissolve the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been postponed indefinitely. This decision is due to the need to transfer the case files to the Supreme Court for consideration of the filed appeal.