The head of DESS accused the UOC of dragging out the court process on the liquidation of the Kyiv Metropolitan Church

The head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyy, has made an accusation against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, stating that it deliberately delayed the court proceedings in the case on the termination of the activity of the Kiev Metropolitanate of the UOC religious organization.

According to the information published by Radio Liberty, the head of the agency believes that representatives of the UOC use procedural mechanisms to postpone the court ruling. The essence of the lawsuit filed by the DESS is the termination of the legal entity of this religious organization.

«They say that they have not received the prescription, while the Metropolitan of Kiev wrote in his letter that «we have received your prescription and will not fulfill it …. They constantly say untruths and delay the time, because if the consideration on the merits begins, they will have to explain why they do not want to withdraw from the organization, which is a direct participant in the war against Ukraine», — said Elensky on the air of the program «Freedom Live».

We will remind, earlier we reported that the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church published a statement of the Primate of the UOC His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Onuphrius, in which the First Hierarch criticized the activities of the State Service of Ukraine on ethno-politics and freedom of conscience, aimed at banning the UOC. The statement claims that the DESS never officially familiarized the Church with the results of the research on the affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate, and did not provide any documents on the work done. In this regard, the UOC categorically disagrees with the statements of the State Service and is suing the State Service.