The lawyer of the UOC told about the details of the court session on the termination of the activities of the Kyiv Metropolitan Church

The Sixth Court of Appeal in Kyiv has postponed the hearing of the case on the lawsuit filed by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) to terminate the activities of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The decision to postpone was made on October 30, 2025 to give the parties an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a large amount of new materials, including more than a thousand statements from believers. The next meeting is scheduled for December 11, 2025.

According to the Information and Education Department of the UOC, the court hearing lasted about five and a half hours, while hundreds of believers prayed outside the courthouse. During the hearing, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, a lawyer for the Kyiv Metropolis, stated several key motions.

The court granted the defense’s request to demand from the State Ethnopolitics Committee all documents on the basis of which the studies were conducted and orders were issued. «State Ethnopolitics did not provide all documents. In particular, it concerned the memo, which after receiving our lawyer’s request they classified under the FOU (for official use — ed.),» commented Father Nikita.

In addition, the court received more than a thousand applications from believers with a request to involve them in the case as third parties. Representatives of the Metropolis stated a motion to postpone consideration to familiarize themselves with these applications. The questions about the involvement of believers, as well as diocesan administrations and monasteries, will be considered at the next session after all parties have had a chance to study the submitted documents.

Due to these circumstances, the court decided to postpone the hearing for a month and a half. The next hearing in the case will be held on December 11, 2025 at 10:00.

We will remind, earlier the Cassation administrative court of the Supreme court of Ukraine rejected the appeal of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the case of termination of its activities. The court upheld the decision of the previous instance, which refused to ban the State Service for Ethno-Politics and Freedom of Conscience from taking actions against organizations associated with the Kiev Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church while the main lawsuit to ban it is being considered.