UOC comments on DESS decision about Kyiv Metropolia’s “ties” with ROC

Metropolitan Clement. Photo: Facebook page of the Nizhyn Eparchy

The spokesperson of the UOC, Metropolitan Clement of Nizhyn and Pryluky, in an interview with Strana criticized the decision of the DESS to recognize the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC as affiliated with Moscow.

He reminded of the position of the Kyiv Metropolia: the document which the officials of the State Service for Ethnopolitics called an “expert assessment” of the UOC Charter is, in fact, not such.

According to him, the court proceedings on the Metropolia’s complaint against the actions of the officials, demanding that they be declared invalid, are still ongoing.

“The document prescribed by the DESS, as well as its orders, are not grounds to consider a religious community liquidated. Such matters must be decided by a court. Since the DESS submits to court a conclusion formed on the basis of Russian, not Ukrainian, documents, there are grounds to believe that the authors of this conclusion will not only fail to prove its legitimacy, but will also face the requirement to answer for attempting to legalize the documents of a Russian organization banned in Ukraine. For it is precisely in this strange and criminal way that the DESS has devised repressions against the UOC and millions of its faithful,” Metropolitan Clement said.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the DESS had declared the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC affiliated with Moscow.

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