In Poltava region, five UOC communities transferred to OCU in 2025

In 2025, the local authorities of Poltava region managed to re-register only five religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in favor of the OCU. Despite this, at least 200 parishes that remained part of the UOC continue to operate in the region.

According to Suspilne, citing data from the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), provided at the request of the publication, as of November 2025, five communities and several priests «moved» to the OCU. The agency clarified that in 2024, three such transitions were recorded.

For his part, the head of the Poltava Diocese of the OCU, Fedir Bubniuk, cited other data. According to him, during the first two years of the full-scale war in the Poltava region, 14 religious communities and six clergymen of the UOC «transferred» to his structure.

Earlier, we reported that the rector of the religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Pashkivtsi, Mukachevo district, Transcarpathian region , Archpriest Vitaly Chorba, fell into schism and joined the OCU. It is reported that the priest made the decision not on his own, but jointly with members of the UOC parish he leads.