Ukrainians trust Metropolitan Epifaniy the most among church leaders, according to a poll
Most Ukrainians are not very familiar with the country’s religious leaders, but among those they do know, Metropolitan Epifaniy enjoys the highest level of trust. At the same time, according to polls, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, does not enjoy trust in Ukraine.
The survey was conducted from May 4 to 9, with 2,000 respondents interviewed via telephone.
The results showed:
- Metropolitan Epiphanius, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – average trust rating of 3.0 out of 4. 22% fully trust him, 25% somewhat trust him.
- Archbishop Sviatoslav, Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – also 3.0, but 62% do not know him at all.
- Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – 2.8. The majority – 59% – also do not know him.
- Leo XIV, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church – 2.6. Here, 41% trust him, but 27% do not.
- Metropolitan Onufriy, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – 2.3. 28% do not trust him, and another 38% do not know him.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, received the lowest rating—1.1 out of 4. 73% responded that they do not trust him at all.
“Regarding Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church—you can see that there is no trust. Therefore, there is no need to discuss the Russian Orthodox Church or Kirill in Ukraine,” said Oleksiy Antypovych, co-founder and CEO of Rating Group.
A significant portion of Ukrainians are generally unfamiliar with religious leaders. According to Oleksiy Antypovych, a fairly high proportion of respondents do not know them.
Metropolitan Epiphanius has the lowest “unfamiliarity” rate: only 35% said “I don’t know him.” For the rest, this figure is significantly higher—ranging from 38% to 62%.
This was reported by Ukrinform, which published a presentation of the survey results from the Rating Group sociological research firm.
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