Case Opened Against Epiphany Dumenko for Defamation of a UOC Hierarch

In August 2025, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv began hearing a civil case in which the head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, is the defendant. The lawsuit was filed by Metropolitan Theodosius (Snihiriov) of Cherkasy and Kaniv of the UOC. The hierarch demands that the statements of the head of the OCU, which he considers defamatory and false, be recognized as such, since they degrade honor and dignity, damage his reputation, and contradict both legal norms and church canons. This was reported by the Cherkasy Diocese of the UOC.

The basis for the lawsuit was Epiphany’s words, voiced on the TSN program. In his commentary, the head of the OCU said: “Here we see in the example of even the Metropolitan of Cherkasy Theodosius, who does everything to openly preach this ideology, to act against the Ukrainian state, against the Ukrainian church on various international platforms. He is attracted by the Russian Federation and is used by it in its own interests, in order to show that there is no freedom of religion in Ukraine.”

The lawsuit states that these statements are untrue, defamatory in nature, and effectively attribute to Metropolitan Theodosius actions that could be interpreted as criminal. Such an approach, the document emphasizes, contradicts the principle of the presumption of innocence and harms his good name.

Metropolitan Theodosius also stressed separately that such public accusations violate the canonical norms of the Church. In particular, the lawsuit refers to the 55th rule of the Council in Trullo and the 27th Apostolic rule, which explicitly prohibit spreading unfounded accusations against archpastors.

It should also be recalled that the international organization “Club of People’s Unity,” which includes representatives of the Ukrainian political community who left the country due to political pressure, published a list of political prisoners detained or convicted in Ukraine on political or religious grounds. The list, which includes 368 people, also contains representatives of the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.