MP to SBU: UOC Primate commemorates Kirill but does not commemorate Bartholomew

Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC press service

Ukrainian Member of Parliament Solomiia Bobrovska said on the Espresso TV channel that she would send formal appeals to the Security Service of Ukraine and to the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, demanding that they check the Primate of the UOC, Metropolitan Onuphry.

The reason was a recording of a service on January 25, 2026, in Bancheny, which journalists played during the broadcast. In it, Metropolitan Onuphry commemorates Patriarch Kirill after Patriarch John of Antioch and Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem. The name of Patriarch Kirill is followed by the name of Patriarch Ilia of Georgia.

“The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onuphry, publicly commemorates the Moscow Patriarch, Kirill Gundiaev – an ideologue and a ‘blesser’ of the war against Ukraine. And at the same time, he does not mention the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, at all, nor does he name the Patriarch of Alexandria,” Bobrovska protested.

According to her, this is not an isolated incident, but a deliberate and repeated practice.

“I think this is, in fact, a very deliberate story on his part. It has probably been voiced and carried out more than once. And these prayers continue to sound exactly as in the video. And this is far from a one–off case,” the MP stressed.

Bobrovska added that this is grounds to inspect the parish as a legal entity for possible ties to its “parent organization” – the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow.

“From my side, there will be appeals both to the security services and to DESS regarding this incident – a request to carry out an inspection,” the MP said.

However, the MP expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of the DESS’s work: “For some reason, the work of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience does not impress me personally, unfortunately. Its cautious, careful position is, to put it mildly, surprising.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the MP urged Greek Catholics to help the OCU with the “transfers” of UOC churches.

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