Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, stated that representatives of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) are intentionally stalling the consideration of the case regarding its liquidation. According to him, the Metropolis’s lawyers are using legal procedures to prolong the process in order to avoid a substantive hearing on the matter.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Positions of the Parties in the Court Proceedings
In his comments, Yelensky noted that the lawyers of the Kyiv Metropolis claim they have not received official directives. At the same time, he stated that the Kyiv Metropolitan confirmed in a letter that he received the directive but reported his refusal to comply with it. The head of the State Ethnopolitics Service emphasized that such behavior is delaying the court process, as “if the substantive hearing begins, they will have to explain why they do not want to leave an organization that is participating in the war against Ukraine.”
“They claim they did not receive the directive, while the Kyiv Metropolitan wrote in his letter that ‘we received your directive, and we will not comply with it… They constantly lie and stall for time because if the substantive hearing begins, they will have to explain why they do not want to exit the organization that is directly involved in the war against Ukraine,'” Yelensky stated during the broadcast of the program ‘Freedom Live’.
He added that during court sessions, the lawyers of the Kyiv Metropolis act extremely aggressively. Despite being invited to participate in a television broadcast, the lawyers of the Kyiv Metropolis did not respond.
Reasons for Delays and Progress of Court Proceedings
In the social network Telegram, lawyer of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC MP Mykyta Chekman reported that over a thousand applications from believers requesting to be involved in the case as third parties have already been submitted to the court, with about 300 more applications pending in the office. This, according to him, has become the basis for postponing the consideration of the case.
The Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kyiv announced on October 30 that it had issued a suspicion in the case regarding the lawsuit from the State Ethnopolitics Service concerning the cessation of the activities of the UOC (MP). The next preparatory hearing in the case of the liquidation of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC (MP) is scheduled for December.
It is worth noting that in August, the State Service for Ethnopolitics made the decision to recognize the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as affiliated with the banned foreign religious organization in Ukraine — the Russian Orthodox Church.
On August 20, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada approved bill No. 8371, which prohibits the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church and religious organizations that have ties to it. The law stipulates that the ROC cannot be an owner or participant in legal entities registered in Ukraine.
At the same time, Metropolitan Kliment, who heads the information and educational department of the UOC (Moscow Patriarchate), emphasized in a comment that the law pertains to religious organizations affiliated with foreign centers, and the UOC, according to him, has no administrative ties with such structures. In his opinion, the accusations in this regard are “exclusively manipulative.”
In 2023, a religious studies examination of the statute of the UOC (MP) confirmed the existence of ecclesiastical-canonical dependence on the Russian Orthodox Church. The State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience noted that the UOC continues to remain under the jurisdiction of the ROC. Meanwhile, the UOC (MP) itself called the conducted examination “illegal and violating the requirements of legislation and exceeding the subject of research.”