Bartholomew said that 40-45 million Ukrainians have received the Tomos on autocephaly

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said that in 2019 he granted the Tomos of autocephaly to 40-45 million Ukrainian citizens. The head of the Phanar justifies his actions in Ukraine by saying that the Russian Orthodox Church failed to heal the Ukrainian church schism, so Patriarch Bartholomew took it upon himself to resolve this issue. He said this during a speech at the Monastery of St. George in Kilkis (Greece), where he is on a visit.

“They [the Russians] believed that their absence at the Council in Crete was the reason why Phanar would declare Ukrainian autocephaly. However, they achieved nothing, and shortly thereafter the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church, recognizing the right of our 40-45 million Ukrainian brothers and sisters to an independent Church free from Moscow’s control. A little later, in February 2022, Moscow began bombing and killing, proving that this is not their mother church, but their enemy,” – Bartholomew said.

The head of the Phanar added that all Local Churches, with the exception of the ancient Patriarchates, have appealed to the Patriarch of Constantinople for recognition of autocephaly, including the “ungrateful Russian Church.”

“Everyone turns to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as the point of reference, the center of Orthodoxy, the loving Mother Church. The exceptions are the ancient Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, as well as the Church of Cyprus; all new Churches – including the ungrateful Russian Church – have their roots in the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” – he added.

As reported, the former press secretary of the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko, and now a well-known lobbyist of the OCU in the media and a cleric of this organization, Andriy Kovalev, said that the OCU risks losing the Tomos of autocephaly granted by Patriarch Bartholomew. Kovalev attributes this to the fact that the OCU does not fulfill all the conditions of this document, the ultimate goal of which, in his opinion, is to unite all Orthodox Ukrainians into one religious structure.