Cherkasy, Cherkasy Province, Ukraine, September 8, 2026
Romfea
A deliberate genocide is being carried out against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its millions of faithful, says His Eminence Metropolitan Theodosy of Cherkasy in a recent interview with the Greek Orthodox news agency Romfea.
The Metropolitan says the persecution meets the definition of genocide set out in Article 6 of the Rome Statute, which Ukraine has signed, citing the killing of members of a religious group, the infliction of serious bodily or mental harm, and the deliberate imposition of conditions calculated to bring about a group’s physical destruction.
Met. Theodosy describes the present situation as the most difficult in the modern history of the UOC, saying criminal cases have been opened against several hierarchs, clergy, and laypeople, including Metropolitan Arseny of the Svyatogorsk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel of the Kiev Caves Lavra, Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, and himself. He notes that five criminal cases have been opened against him personally over his theological statements, including his rejection of the canonicity of the schismatic OCU founded by Patriarch Bartholomew.
He notes that UOC clergy are being conscripted to the front line while OCU and other confessions retain draft deferment, calling this the physical elimination of the clergy, and that legal proceedings are underway to strip the Kiev Metropolia of its legal status, with similar proceedings prepared against the Pochaev Lavra and Kremenets Monastery.
He also cites the recent killing of the monk Varsanuphy at the Svyatogorsk Lavra, who was disfigured with a knife and then shot in the head by a group of armed men.
On Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Theodosy says the 2018 decision to establish the so-called “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” was shortsighted and arrogant, and that it created an extremely problematic situation given that Ukraine is canonical territory of another patriarchate. He states that Patriarch Bartholomew could foresee the consequences of his actions, noting that members of the UOC’s own Holy Synod, along with a large delegation of clergy and faithful, had traveled to the Phanar and delivered hundreds of thousands of signatures asking him not to establish a new jurisdiction in Ukraine.
Metropolitan Theodosy explains that Patriarch Bartholomew still has the power to influence clergy of the church he founded in Ukraine, who he said are in most cases the instigators of the seizures and violence, and could issue a public blessing to halt the aggression and apply canonical measures against the most aggressive activists among that clergy.
He recalls that before he and his clergy and faithful were driven out of his cathedral in Cherkasy, he addressed a direct appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew from the altar of the besieged church, which was translated into multiple languages but has remained unanswered.
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