We shall remind you that earlier, the head of the religious affairs department of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Vyacheslav Gorshkov, described the next steps that the DESS would take with regard to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to its refusal to fulfill the state’s demands to remove its affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the official, in the near future the State Service will start the procedure of deregistration of all religious communities affiliated with the UOC and expropriation of real estate that the church uses on the rights of lease and free use.
Details of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's lawsuit against DESS became known
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has asked the court to recognize as unlawful and cancel the order of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) to recognize the Kiev Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. This is stated in the text of the lawsuit, published on the website of the Unified state register of court decisions.
According to the published information, the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, asking the court to recognize as unlawful and cancel the order of the State Service for Ethnopolitics N-127/11 of August 27, 2025 on the recognition of the CM of the UOC affiliated with a foreign religious organization, the activities of which are prohibited in Ukraine. Archpriest Nikita Chekman has been appointed as the KM UOC’s lawyer in this case.
“Having studied the statement of claim and attached documents, the subject and grounds of the claim, the composition of the parties to the dispute, the court finds that there are grounds for consideration of the case under the rules of simplified action proceedings without notice to the parties. Together with the statement of claim, the representative of the plaintiff filed a petition to seize evidence”, – said in the text.
At the same time, the court asked DESS to provide:
– a copy of the memo of the Head of the Department of Religious Affairs dated 16.05.2025 No. 41, on the basis of which the Order of the State Service of Ukraine on Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience dated 16.05.2025 No. 11-70/11 “On conducting an investigation on the issue of the presence of signs of affiliation of the KIEVSKY MITROPOLY OF UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH with a foreign religious organization, the activity of which is prohibited in Ukraine” was issued;
– all materials that were or should have been taken into account when adopting the controversial order.
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