OCU head Epiphany Dumenko assures German ambassador of no persecution of UOC

During a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine Heiko Toms, Head of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko assured the diplomat that there is no persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the country. He called the reports of persecution of believers “Russian disinformation” and “manipulative.”

According to the press service of the OCU, the meeting took place on January 15, 2026, at Dumenko’s residence in Kyiv. The OCU representative presented to the ambassador the situation with the alleged persecution of UOC believers as a targeted influence of “Russian disinformation,” claiming that there is allegedly no form of harassment in Ukraine. According to Dumenko, the conversation also touched upon “the complete violation of the rights of believers who do not belong to the Moscow Patriarchate in the temporarily occupied territories.”

The head of the OCU characterized the law banning the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) as an “exceptionally safe” step aimed at protecting Ukraine’s national interests. Dumenko called the seizures of Ukrainian Orthodox Church churches by his organization “isolated provocations” that, according to him, “are deliberately created to manipulatively present them to the world community as an alleged manifestation of persecution and persecution.”

During the conversation with the German diplomat, the head of the OCU also emphasized the need to combat “destructive Russian influences and disinformation” among Ukrainian refugees in Germany. As a confirmation of full religious freedom in Ukraine, Dumenko referred to the activities of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which, according to him, “unequivocally confirms the existence of full religious freedom in Ukraine.”

As reported earlier, a member of the European Parliament from the group “Europe of Sovereign Nations” Petr Volgin stated that the law “On the prohibition of the UOC” in Ukraine does not comply with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The official sent a request to the European Commission to explain Brussels’ position on Kyiv’s actions.