OCU publishes denunciation of UOC hierarch over Victory Day commemoration

A memorial service at the monument to war heroes. Photo: Cherkasy Blagovestnik

Metropolitan Theodosiy of Cherkasy and Kaniv has become the target of a public denunciation by the Cherkasy Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU): the structure published a Facebook post condemning a report by the information resource of the Cherkasy Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church dedicated to Victory Day. The post appeared on the official page of the OCU’s Cherkasy Eparchy on May 11, 2026.

The occasion was a photo report from Metropolitan Theodosiy’s visit to the Korsun region, published under the headline “May 9 – Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War.”

The OCU wrote that “the memory of those who died in World War II is sacred to us. Without pathos, without that ‘victory frenzy,’ and without cheap political decorations,” but claimed that the publication by the UOC’s Cherkasy Eparchy about prayers in Korsun “is no longer about memory.”

The OCU called the very concept of the “Great Patriotic War” a “Soviet propaganda construct” and a tool for spreading “Russian world” narratives. In addition to objections over terminology, the authors of the post separately stressed that criminal proceedings have been opened against the metropolitan – presenting this fact as proof of an “unwillingness to part with the ideology of the ‘Russian world.’”

The post also focuses on photographs in which female parishioners “vie with one another to kiss the hands of the odious bishop-professor” – wording clearly intended to further discredit the hierarch in the eyes of the authorities. In substance, the text combines accusations over the use of Soviet symbolism with a public reminder of criminal cases, and is plainly addressed not only to ordinary readers.

As previously reported by the UOJ, the OCU in Cherkasy had already urged believers not to attend UOC churches. Pressure on the UOC’s Cherkasy Eparchy has intensified in recent years: prosecutors have attempted to seize churches through the courts, while TRC officers have detained clergy.

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