UOC left out: DESS updates exemption list for religious organizations

Head of DESS V. Yelensky. Photo: DESS

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) by order of May 8, 2026, approved an updated list of religious organizations critically important for the functioning of the economy and ensuring the livelihood of the population during a special period. This is reported by the DESS press service.

The updated list includes 10,922 legal entities – religious organizations of various denominations. Inclusion of an organization in this list gives it the right to initiate reservation – processing of deferment from mobilization – for its clergy. The list is an active registry that DESS periodically reviews.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine received the most reservation places – 3,195. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church received 2,071 places, Baptists – 922, the Roman Catholic Church – 479, Pentecostals – 359.

The list includes the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which ceased its activities back in 2019 – 57 places. The "Old Orthodox Church" – 13 places. There are also pagans: Orthodox Native Faith Academy of Confession, Religious Community of Ukrainian Pagans, Religious Community of Pagans "Fern Flower".

The most organizations are reserved in Western Ukraine: Lviv (1,762), Ternopil (1,082) and Ivano-Frankivsk (910) regions.

UOC structures are not represented in the list. According to assurances from DESS Deputy Head Voinalovych, the UOC should have changed its official name to ROCinU. Since it refused to do this, its Statute is not valid and UOC structures are not subject to exemption.

As the UOJ reported, DESS previously published a similar list without communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. At that time, thousands of UOC parishes were not included in the list because they did not change their official names in accordance with the 2018 law that obligated religious organizations with affiliation to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to undergo renaming.

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