The UOC filed a counterclaim in the case of termination of its activity

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church has filed a counterclaim with the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in a case initiated by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) to stop its activities. The court accepted the counterclaim for consideration together with the original lawsuit, marking a new stage in the judicial confrontation between the church and state authorities amid the recent recognition of the UOC as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.

In the counterclaim, as follows from the published case materials, the UOC demands that the inaction of the DESS be recognized as unlawful. According to the plaintiff, it consists in the failure to send the Church an official order to eliminate violations and the lack of written notification of the decision to recognize it as affiliated with a foreign religious organization. The Church asks the court to oblige the civil service to fulfill these procedural actions.

on September 22, the court ruled to accept the counterclaim for joint consideration with the original one. In addition, it obliged the DESS to provide the original copies of key documents in the case, including orders on the investigation, on the identification of signs of affiliation and the order to eliminate violations.

We would like to remind you that the day before, Metropolitan Antony of Boryspil and Brovary appealed to the faithful to spend September 29 and 30 in strict fasting and intense prayer. This spiritual preparation is connected with the upcoming trial, which, according to the hierarch, has been initiated to ban the activities of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the UOC.