Warsaw, February 18, 2026
Schismatic “priest” Sergei Sirenko serving in Warsaw. Photo: zn.ua
A cleric of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” operating in Warsaw has claimed that the OCU’s presence in Poland was coordinated with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, while accusing the Polish Orthodox Church of harboring pro-Russian sympathies for refusing to recognize his organization.
Sergei Sirenko, who serves as an OCU “priest” in Warsaw, made the statements in an interview with the Ukrainian publication Zerkalo Nedeli, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
He acknowledges that the OCU’s tomos formally prohibits it from opening parishes outside Ukraine, but argues that Russia’s invasion changed the situation. To work around this restriction, the OCU organized its structures in Poland under the designation of a “chaplaincy mission” rather than formal parishes.
“We’re not a parish—this is a chaplaincy mission providing spiritual care to OCU faithful abroad. Such missions operate in many Polish cities, as well as in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states, and elsewhere. But the greatest number of missions is operating specifically in Poland,” Sirenko says.
He claims that the OCU’s presence in Poland, as in other countries, had been “coordinated with the Ecumenical Patriarch,” and states that the missions would remain even after the end of hostilities in Ukraine, since part of the OCU faithful will stay abroad permanently.
He suggests that if the Polish Church were to recognize the OCU, the missions could simply be transferred to it as regular parishes, but indicated that if the Polish Church continues withholding recognition, the OCU will maintain its own structures for its adherents regardless.
Sirenko also levels sharp criticism at the Polish Church, accusing most of its clergy of holding “pro-Russian views” and preaching the “Russian world” ideology.
The Polish Orthodox Church hasn’t recognized the OCU and doesn’t consider its clerical ordinations valid, a position shared by the majority of the Orthodox world. His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland has lodged formal complaints with Patriarch Bartholomew on multiple occasions over the OCU’s activities on Polish canonical territory, most recently, in November 2025.
The current wave of OCU activity in Poland began on July 27 when OCU “hierarch” Hilarion of Rivne and Ostroh and other OCU clergy served in Warsaw without Met. Sawa’s blessing. Regular chaplaincy services have continued there since. A similar incident occurred in January 2022, when formerly canonical bishop Alexander Drabinko, who had joined the OCU, served in Poland, prompting Polish hierarchs to protest to Constantinople at that time as well.
Despite repeated appeals from the Polish Church and broader calls for a Pan-Orthodox council to address the status of the OCU, Constantinople hasn’t taken action to resolve the canonical disputes. The OCU has similarly encroached upon the territory of other Local Churches, including the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
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