OCU suspends "hierarch" selling priest IDs to draft dodgers

Kyrylo Mykhailiuk. Photo: open sources

On November 13, 2025, the Synod of the OCU temporarily suspended from the Uzhhorod-Khust Eparchy leadership ‘Bishop’ Kyrylo Mykhailyuk, who is under investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) for selling fake identification documents for priests and deacons.

Mykhailiuk was banned from issuing any certificates, references, and credentials, as well as performing "ordinations".

Earlier, the UOJ reported that an OCU “bishop” was paid to register draft dodgers as clergy.

Read also

MP demands answers from Rivne authorities over UOC charity event

Bobrovska expressed outrage that city officials allowed the Rivne Eparchy of the UOC to hold a charity festival that raised money for children with cancer.

In U.S., Archbishop of Albania leads Divine Liturgy on Triumph of Orthodoxy

The Primate of the Albanian Church served in Massachusetts and called for visible unity among Orthodox jurisdictions.

Phanar backs common Easter date with Catholics and Protestants

Theologians of the Patriarchate of Constantinople have proposed revising calendar practice and bringing the celebration of Easter closer to the Western tradition.

DESS congratulates Ukraine’s Jews on Purim

The State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience addressed Ukraine’s Jewish community on the occasion of Purim.

Patriarch Bartholomew becomes honorary professor of ecology in Greece

The Ionian University of Greece has awarded Patriarch Bartholomew the honorary title of professor in its Department of Environment.

Phanar’s shift to new calendar triggered Orthodox schism – ROCOR hierarch

Metropolitan Mark called Constantinople’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar the main source of divisions in the Orthodox world.