Fve communities “transferred” to OCU in Poltava region in 2005, – DESS
Metropolitan Philip prays with the persecuted UOC parish in the village of Shyshaky. Photo: Poltava Eparchy
As of November 2025, five religious communities and several priests have “transferred” from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the OCU in the Poltava region. This was reported by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) in response to an inquiry from Suspilne.
The publication notes that the region still has no fewer than 100–200 UOC parishes.
According to the DESS, “in 2024, only three religious communities and several priests changed their jurisdiction, and in 2025 – five communities and some priests.”
“Metropolitan” Fedir of Poltava and Kremenchuk of the OCU in turn stated that during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, 14 UOC religious communities and six clergy in the Poltava region transferred to the OCU.
As the UOJ reported, MP Kniazhytsky earlier complained that “very few” UOC communities had transferred to the OCU.
Read also
UOC church destroyed by shelling in Yunakivka, Sumy region
In the frontline Sumy region, the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos has been destroyed.
TRC abducts rector of UOC church in Osmyhovychi
A priest of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Eparchy was forcibly mobilized when he was returning from the hospital together with his pregnant wife.
Persecuted UOC community of Panka celebrates Trinity in adapted premises
Bukovyna believers who lost their church gathered for joint prayer on the Feast of Pentecost and thanked God for preserving church unity.
Romanian Church to include St. Gabriel Urgebadze in its calendar
The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Romania canonized Gabriel of Georgia, a fool for Christ.
Kherson Greek-Sophia Church of UOC damaged by shelling
A shell exploded in the territory of the Kherson Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Pope appoints laywoman to high Vatican position for the first time
The head of the Catholic Church has entrusted the management of the Holy See's information policy to the president of the EWTN media network.