State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience files lawsuit to liquidate UOC-MP
The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has filed a lawsuit seeking the liquidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).
The head of the service, Viktor Yelenskyi, announced this, Censor.NET reports, citing Suspilne.
Yelenskyi explained that the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience is acting under Ukraine’s law "On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Activities of Religious Organizations."
"According to the law, if there is information about a possible connection between a religious organization and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the State Service for Ethnopolitics conducts an assessment and initiates a review," he said.
The DESS determined that the UOC-MP is part of the Russian Orthodox Church and issued an order consisting of four requirements:
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The Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC must ensure that the church’s governing bodies decide to withdraw from the Moscow Patriarchate;
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The Kyiv Metropolitan must ensure that the church’s governing bodies declare the most recent ROC statute, supported by UOC bishops, as not applicable to the UOC;
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The Kyiv Metropolitan must declare that he does not recognize his appointment by the ROC Synod;
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The UOC’s governing bodies must declare that they do not recognize the ROC’s annexation of its dioceses in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
The UOC-MP was required to comply with the order within 30 days of its issuance, i.e. by the end of August 2025.
"If they had requested an extension, the DESS could have prolonged it by 60 days. But we received a letter from Metropolitan Onufrii. The letter was contradictory, claiming that the order supposedly does not apply to them and that we are interfering in their internal affairs. According to the law, we must turn to the court. The Kyiv Metropolis has also issued several counter-orders against DESS. We demand that the UOC-MP withdraw from the Russian church," Yelenskyi stressed.
If the court rules in favor of DESS, the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP will lose its legal entity status. "This does not mean that parishes must join another church. Parishes, if they wish, may act autonomously and remain independent," the DESS head emphasized.
As reported, on August 28 DESS recognized the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC-MP as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The ROC’s activities are banned in Ukraine. The Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC declared that it "disagrees" with the conclusions about affiliation, arguing that DESS allegedly based its findings on documents from Russia rather than on the UOC-MP’s own statute.
