Kiev, July 2, 2025
24tv.ua
President Zelensky of Ukraine has deprived His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine of Ukrainian citizenship.
Met. Onuphry is the primate of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the largest religious confession in the country.
The Ukrainian Security Service claims that Met. Onuphry voluntarily received Russian citizenship in 2002 but didn’t inform Ukrainian authorities about it. He thus continued to enjoy the status and rights of a Ukrainian citizen.
The SBU also claims that His Beatitude maintains contact with the Moscow Patriarchate and “deliberately opposed the acquisition of canonical independence of the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Patriarchate, whose representative openly support Russian aggression against Ukraine. Despite the full-scale invasion, Berezovsky (Onuphry) actually continues to support the policy of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership, in particular Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev).”
Of course, the SBU statement provides no evidence of its claims, which are blatantly contradicted by the reality on the ground. Met. Onuphry has explicitly condemned the war many times over, and it’s well known that he led the UOC, at its Local Council in May 2022, to separate from the Moscow Patriarchate.
His Eminence Metropolitan Kliment of Nizhyn, Chairman of the UOC’s Synodal Information and Educational Department, clarified in comments to BBC Ukraine that “His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry explained that he only has the passport of a citizen of Ukraine. Besides Ukrainian, he doesn’t have any other passports, including of the Russian Federation. He has already explained that he has never applied to the state bodies of other states to acquire another citizenship.”
Met. Onuphry, who is a native Bukovinian, explained in April 2023 that when the Soviet Union fell, his automatically received Russian citizenship because he had a permanent registration there, having been a long-time resident of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. At the same time, he intentionally received Ukrainian citizenship and never used his Russian citizenship, and when relations between the Russia and Ukraine began to deteriorate, he allowed his Russian passport to lapse.
In his evening address, Zelensky referred to Met. Onuphry’s situation though without naming him. He declared that Ukraine is fighting for its spiritual independence and that such people “do not and will not have a place in Ukraine.”
“They’ve taken away his passport,” commented His Eminence Metropolitan Luke of Zaporozhye on his Telegram channel, “but Christ can’t be taken away.”
He concluded his reflection:
For us, today’s blow is a moment of purification and unity, not defeat. This is a call to take faith deeper than nationality or formal status. After all, the Church is the Body of Christ, where love remains the main connecting thread, and citizenship is only a temporary affiliation. In addition to temporary earthly citizenship, we have eternal citizenship—Heavenly, and we don’t need a passport there.
Yes, the deprivation of citizenship is a blatant injustice, but it doesn’t deprive us of the faith and spiritual authority of the UOC pastors. On the contrary, it’s a time to become stronger in prayer, mercy and unity. From a spiritual point of view, we must steadfastly bear the cross with the Church and continue our ministry, as required by Christ.
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