DESS files lawsuit against Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC

Yelensky. Photo: Ukraine Media Center

On August 29, 2025, the Department for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) filed a lawsuit with the High Administrative Court to terminate the activities of the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC, Viktor Yelensky announced at a briefing in the Ukraine media center.

“If the order is not fulfilled, the DESS is obliged to declare the Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is banned in Ukraine – that is the first step. The second is to send letters about this to the Kyiv Metropolia and to those religious organizations that are part of it or connected with it. The third – immediately, as stated in the law, is to file a lawsuit in court to terminate the activities of the Kyiv Metropolia, speaking of which, that has been done,” Yelensky said.

He stressed that terminating the Kyiv Metropolia does not mean the closure of all UOC parishes and communities. If the court makes such a decision, the Kyiv Metropolia will be stripped of its legal entity status and lose legal capacity, meaning that the parishes would no longer have a central governing body.

“This also does not mean that parishes will be forced to join some other Church. The state does not demand and does not drive anyone into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine or any other Church,” the head of the department assured. According to him, parishes may remain independent and function autonomously.

Answering a journalist’s question on whether the DESS had found ties between the UOC and Russian intelligence services, Yelensky replied that this was not the case. “This is not about a connection between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the special services of the Russian Federation. If there are links between certain priests and Russian intelligence or the occupiers, or cases of collaboration with the occupiers, then those cases are examined separately... That is not what we are talking about. We are talking about the Ukrainian state banning the activities of structures of the Russian Orthodox Church on the territory of Ukraine,” he explained.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that criminal cases had been opened against Yelensky for inciting interreligious hatred.

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