The Russian Orthodox Church Responds to the Revocation of Metropolitan Onuphry’s Citizenship: “This Is an Act of Pressure on Millions of Believers”

The Russian Orthodox Church has responded to the news of the revocation of Ukrainian citizenship from His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine. The statement was made by Vladimir Legoyda, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media. The full text of the statement was published on the official ROC website.

He emphasized that this decision by the Ukrainian authorities is yet another episode in the systemic persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

“The Ukrainian authorities continue to exert pressure on the faithful, clergy, and bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — the only canonical Orthodox Church in the country. Church seizures, persecution of clergy and laity, expulsions, arrests, and criminal cases against bishops — now the revocation of the citizenship of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, has been added to this list,” the statement reads.

According to Legoyda, this step is not a legal measure but a clearly political act aimed not at an individual, but at the entire Church in Ukraine.

“A precise legal assessment of this step is still to come, but it can already be confidently stated: the revocation of Metropolitan Onuphry’s citizenship is not merely a legal measure directed against a Ukrainian citizen. It is a harsh political act intended to pressure not just one person, but the entire multimillion-strong flock of the Ukrainian Church,” the ROC representative noted.

He described the decision as a logical continuation of the persecution of the Church and believers, who, according to him, make up the majority of Ukraine’s citizens.

Earlier it was reported that the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, congratulated His Holiness Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria on the anniversary of his enthronement. In the text of the congratulatory message, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church thanked his colleague for his support of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.