Kiev, December 12, 2025
Photo: fakty.com.ua
The Sixth Appellate Court in Kiev has postponed indefinitely its hearing on the State Ethnopolitics Service’s lawsuit to ban the Kiev Metropolia of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, according to Archpriest Nikita Chekman, the Metropolia’s attorney.
Yesterday’s hearing was canceled after the case materials were transferred to the Cassation Court, Fr. Nikita announced. When the materials will be returned to the appellate court remains unknown, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
“Consideration of the case without the materials is impossible. When they will transfer the materials is unknown, so the court is postponed indefinitely,” the attorney stated.
The state’s crusade against Orthodoxy began in earnest in August of last year when Parliament passed and President Zelensky signed into a law a bill on banning religious organizations connected to Russia, which lawmakers openly proclaimed was actually aimed at banning the Kiev-centered Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
In May of this year, based on this law, DESS began formally investigating UOC structures, beginning with the Kiev Metropolia. In August, the Service formally declared that the UOC is still connected to the Moscow Patriarchate, taking Russian Church documents as its guide, thereby investing them with legislative authority in Ukraine. On this basis, DESS filed a lawsuit against the Kiev Metropolia, which began in October.
Fr. Nikita also revealed a provocation attempt against the Church. More than 7,000 applications from UOC faithful across Ukraine have been submitted to the court seeking to join the case as third parties, with believers arguing that banning the Kiev Metropolia would violate their rights as citizens and faithful.
However, presiding Judge Kobal notified the parties that one envelope from an alleged believer contained money. The judge reported the incident to the High Council of Justice and law enforcement.
“In my deep conviction, this fact is nothing other than a provocation by people hostile to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” Fr. Nikita stated. “The goal is very simple: to provoke criminal proceedings, begin an investigation, and exert pressure on people who are appealing to the court and exercising their constitutional rights to access justice.”
The attorney urged believers to follow the law, not succumb to provocations, and refrain from any illegal actions.
“We understand what strategies our procedural opponents might use. But we know that God is with us,” he emphasized.
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