The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (SESS) filed a lawsuit against the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC (MP) in court. This was announced at a briefing by the head of the department, Viktor Yelenskyi.
He explained that the DESS operates in accordance with the law of Ukraine “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations”:
“According to the law, if there is information about a possible connection of a religious organization with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), then the state service for ethnopolitics evaluates and appoints a study”.
According to the results of the evaluation, the State Security Council established that the UOC (MP) is a part of the Russian Orthodox Church, and issued an order consisting of four points. The Kyiv Metropolitanate had: to ensure the decision of the governing bodies of the UOC to withdraw from the Moscow Patriarchate; to confirm that the last charter of the Russian Orthodox Church, for which the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church also voted, is not valid for the church; to declare the metropolitan’s disagreement with the appointment by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church; and also to refuse to recognize the annexation of the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church in the east of Ukraine and Crimea.
The UOC (MP) had 30 days from the date of its issuance until the end of August 2025 to implement this order.
“If they asked to extend this term, then DESS can extend it for 60 days. But we received a letter from Onufry. The letter is contradictory, stating that the prescription does not apply to them and that we are entering their internal affairs. We have to apply, as written in the law, to the court. The Kyiv Metropolitanate also issued several orders against DESS. We demand that the UOC-MP withdraw from the Russian Church, Yelensky emphasized.
He specified that the trial will concern only the leadership of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the UOC (MP). If the decision is made in favor of DESS, the metropolis will lose the status of a legal entity.
“This does not mean that parishes should transfer to another church, parishes, if they wish, can act autonomously, remain independent”, explained the head of the service.
We remind you that on August 28, the DESS officially recognized the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine. In the metropolis itself, they said that they do not agree with with these findings. The UOC (MP) is convinced that the DESS made its conclusions allegedly on the basis of documents from Russia, and not on the basis of the statute of the church itself.
