The State Policy Committee confirmed the conclusion regarding the UOC’s ties to the Moscow Patriarchate
The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (SSU) has reviewed the findings of the religious studies expert assessment of the charter of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP)) and confirmed the existence of a canonical link with the Moscow Patriarchate.
The decision was adopted in accordance with a ruling by the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, which ordered a re-evaluation of the results of the expert review regarding the church’s charter.
“In doing so, the court’s conclusions regarding the need to consider the application of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church dated January 10, 2023, regarding the recusal of members of the expert group responsible for conducting the religious studies expert review of the Statute on the Administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were taken into account,” the statement reads.
The Service emphasized that the experts who conducted the religious studies expert review in 2022–2023 were high-level specialists from leading non-denominational educational and scientific institutions in Ukraine. “The State Service, for its part, acted as an institutional guarantor that the personal views of the Expert Group members would not influence the results of the religious studies review and assumed responsibility for ensuring its impartial and professional conduct,” the press service emphasized.
As reported by the State Service for Ethnic Policy, the subject of the public statements contested in the UOC-MP’s complaint differs from the subject of the religious studies expert review. At the same time, the statements by members of the expert group, regarding whom recusal was requested, represent their civic stance in the context of full-scale war and concern various issues of state governance, legislation, and the activities of religious organizations during martial law. The expert review itself was devoted exclusively to a religious-institutional issue—the analysis of the Statute on the Governance of the UOC-MP.
“The conclusion was unanimously supported by all members of the expert group… Thus, in the absence of objective and subjective criteria for bias, the DESC reached a well-founded conclusion regarding the groundlessness of the recusal of the expert group members,” the service reported.
Earlier, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal partially upheld the UOC-MP’s lawsuit against the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience and its head, Viktor Yelensky. The Moscow Church demanded that the court overturn the conclusion of the religious studies expert review of the UOC-MP’s Statute regarding the existence of a canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate. This expert review, conducted in 2023, concluded that the UOC-MP’s Statute—which the church updated in May 2022—did not result in a severance of canonical ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a priest of the UOC (MP) who glorified the occupiers was exposed.
In Ukraine, charges were filed against a Russian Orthodox Church metropolitan who justified the war
As a reminder, the SBU and the National Police exposed 20 organizers of draft evasion schemes across Ukraine.
Also this year, over 270 organizers of schemes to smuggle draft dodgers abroad were exposed in Zakarpattia.
