Kiev, May 20, 2025
The central administration of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Kiev Metropolia, led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, is the first specific target of the state’s ongoing campaign against the Church.
On August 24, President Zelensky signed into law Bill 8371, which is aimed at banning the entire canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The law stipulated that investigations into specific legal entities for possible connections to Russia would begin 9 months from its signing. Dioceses, parishes, monasteries, and other Church organizations exist as individual legal entities and thus under the current legislation have to be individually investigated and taken to court.
On May 9, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for investigating Church entities, and on May 17, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience announced that it is investigating the Kiev Metropolia of the UOC, starting today.
Based on the investigation results, the State Service will issue an order either confirming the presence of signs of affiliation between the Kiev Metropolia and the Russian Orthodox Church, or noting the absence of such signs.
The seven signs of affiliation with the ROC, as laid out in the relevant law, are:
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The UOC community directly or through a UOC diocese is part of the ROC
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In official documents of the UOC community, “there are signs of membership” in the ROC
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In official ROC documents, “there are indications regarding the inclusion in its structure” of UOC communities
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Official ROC documents provide for the inclusion of ROC representatives in the governing bodies of the UOC
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The ROC can influence the activities of UOC communities
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The ROC blesses the Metropolitan of Kiev after his election to this position
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The ROC approves the entry into force of the charter of UOC communities
The majority of the signs concern not the life and operations or statutory documents of the Ukrainian Church, but rather the Russian Church’s view and activities, which entities within the UOC have no control over.
While the Ukrainian government has formally declared Russia the “aggressor state,” it nevertheless follows the Russian Church’s lead, accepting ROC documents as authoritative in its investigations. On this basis, the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience declared in January 2023 that the UOC as a whole remains part of the ROC. At a Local Council the previous May, the UOC adopted new statutes removing all ties to the ROC, but the State Service based its analysis not on the life and operations or statutory documents of the UOC, but rather those of the ROC.
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