DESS Chair assures Romanian counterpart of religious freedom in Ukraine

Olinici and Yelensky in Chernivtsi. Photo: DESS's Facebook

March 5, 2025 – A meeting took place in Chernivtsi between Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), and Ciprian Olinici, Romania’s State Secretary for Religious Affairs, according to a Facebook post by the DESS's press service. The reasons for Olinici’s visit to Chernivtsi were not disclosed.

According to the publication, Yelensky "informed Ciprian Olinici about the measures taken by the Ukrainian state to protect the constitutional order in the sphere of religious organizations and to prevent the manipulation of religion by the aggressor state."

"He assured that these measures do not and will not restrict religious freedom in Ukraine," the post stated.

The press service also reported that "the parties discussed the processes occurring within global Orthodoxy and the relations between local Orthodox Churches. Both Viktor Yelensky and Ciprian Olinici emphasized the necessity of dialogue between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine."

Background on UOC church re-registrations in Chernivtsi

On February 26, 2025, it became known that three main churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Chernivtsi – the Holy Spirit Cathedral, St. Nicholas Cathedral, and the Peter and Paul Church – were re-registered under the name of "bishop" Theognost (Yaroslav) Bodoriak of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) by unknown individuals.

Later, it was revealed that the illegal re-registration of these churches was carried out by Solomiya Hryniv, an official from the Lviv Regional State Administration.

Earlier, on February 16, 2025, a gathering of unknown individuals waving flags took place outside the Holy Spirit Cathedral of the UOC in Chernivtsi. Amid chants of "death to the enemies!", they voted for the transfer of the city's three main churches to the OCU without any legal grounds. Some of them were identified by parishioners as members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and the OCU.

At the same time, inside the cathedral, several thousand parishioners of the UOC religious community voted to remain loyal to their Church. Similar votes were later held in other UOC churches in Chernivtsi.

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