On July 8, 2025, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience published a report according to which the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is recognized as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. In their conclusions, DESS experts refer mainly to the statutory documents of the Russian Orthodox Church and their own politically biased assessments. At the same time, the State Service has practically ignored the decisions of the Council of the UOC in Feofaniya adopted in 2022, by which the Church separated its activities from the Russian Church.
Political scientist: DESS established the affiliation of the UOC with the Moscow Patriarchate using documents created on the territory of the aggressor state
Ukrainian political scientist Kostyantyn Bondarenko commented on the decision of the DESS expert commission to establish the affiliation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Moscow Patriarchate. The political scientist pointed out the absurdity of using the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church as the basis for establishing the ties between the UOC and the ROC in the aforementioned expert opinion. He spoke about this in an interview with blogger Oleksandr Shelest.
“A very interesting precedent is being set, because they are appealing not to Ukrainian legislation, but to the Statute of the Russian Orthodox Church, a document created on the territory of the aggressor state, to use official terminology. In other words, our internal legislation, the statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is of no concern to them. Figuratively speaking, they ignore it because they appeal to another document, a document created in a neighboring state. Well, excuse me, but we can go too far with this. It just shows the degree of stupidity and meanness of Ukrainian officials,” – the political scientist said.
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