Earlier, we reported that despite pressure and a de facto ban by the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains the largest religious organization in Ukraine in terms of the number of religious communities and followers. Even in Kyiv, the number of UOC churches is twice as high as that of the OCU.
There are twice as many UOC communities in the Kirovohrad region than in the OCU
Vitaliy Ostanniy, Director of the Department of Public Relations and Information Activities of the Kirovograd Regional State Administration, spoke about the number of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that the state managed to re-register in the OCU, and about the interfaith map of the region as a whole. According to the official, there are twice as many UOC communities in the region as there are OCU communities, and the percentage of “transfers” from the UOC to the OCU is one of the lowest in the country. He spoke about this in an interview with CBN.
It is reported that since 2022, 16 religious communities of the UOC in the region have been re-registered in favor of the OCU. However, the most numerous community is the UOC, which has 284 parishes, while the OCU has 146 religious communities.
“To date, no statements have been made by the leaders of the Kirovograd and Oleksandriya dioceses regarding their position on this issue. There are 284 religious communities of the UOC in the region. In 2025, two religious communities changed their canonical subordination to the OCU,” — Vitaliy Ostanniy noted.