DESS suspends approval of travel for UOC after incident with business trip of one of its clerics

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has temporarily suspended the review of requests from the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) regarding clergy travel abroad. The decision was reportedly triggered by the case of one clergyman, Maksym Shevchenko, who did not return from a foreign assignment. This was reported by the website Dukhovny Front citing its own sources.

According to the publication, on July 21, DESS received a letter from the Kyiv Metropolis, dated July 17, 2025, stating that the priest had traveled abroad at the invitation of the St. Spyridon Parish of the UOC in Nuremberg, but failed to return by the scheduled date — July 14. A medical certificate was attached to the letter.

“In connection with Shevchenko’s failure to return and the lack of responses to previous inquiries regarding other clergy, DESS has suspended processing of requests from the UOC Metropolis for permits from the State Border Guard Service to leave the country until relevant information is received,” Dukhovny Front reports.

It was previously reported that within less than a month, the State Service stated that 2,285 “clergymen” — heads of religious organizations — had completed the process of deferral from mobilization.