DESS confirms: UOC remains the largest religious denomination in Ukraine

UOC Cathedral in Feofania. Photo: UOC Press Service

Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), in response to a request from LIGA, confirmed that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) remains the country’s largest religious denomination. As of January 1, 2025, the UOC comprises 10,118 religious organizations, including 9,792 religious communities.

The largest numbers of UOC structures are located in Vinnytsia (836), Dnipropetrovsk (649), and Khmelnytskyi (621) regions.

By comparison, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) has 8,511 registered organizations. The highest concentrations of OCU structures are found in Ternopil (630), Khmelnytskyi (704), and Lviv (1,013) regions.

The report also notes that since the start of the full-scale invasion, 2,022 communities have joined the OCU. However, only 1,285 of these were formerly part of the UOC. DESS did not explain the origin of the remaining parishes.

The agency underscored that it “does not record instances of potential obstruction to parish transitions, as such matters fall outside the scope of its legal authority.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported on DESS statistics regarding the number of UOC churches that had “switched” to the OCU as of January 1, 2024.

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