DESS reaffirms 2023 “expert assessment” on UOC’s ties to ROC

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: DESS press service

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has re-examined and reaffirmed the conclusions of the religious studies expert assessment of the Statute on the Governance of the UOC regarding the existence of a church-canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate. The new order approving the assessment is dated May 13, 2026.

At the same time, one of the experts, Ihor Kozlovskyi, whose name appears in the “new” document, is already deceased.

The grounds for the renewed review were the ruling of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal issued on April 6, 2026, in case No. 320/26027/23. The court declared the original expert assessment conclusions (approved in January 2023) invalid because DESS had failed to consider the petition filed by the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC seeking the recusal of members of the expert panel. The actions of the then-head of the agency, Viktor Yelensky, were deemed unlawful.

Back in January 2023, the UOC Legal Department, represented by Archpriest Oleksandr Bakhov, formally demanded the recusal of several experts, expressing distrust toward them because of their public anti-church statements. In essence, this was a matter of principle: at least four of the seven members of the panel had previously spoken openly against the UOC or in favor of banning it.

DESS, however, once again refused to recuse the experts. In its official response, the agency stated that the specialists’ public negative remarks about the UOC allegedly reflected their “civic position” in wartime conditions and had no bearing on the subject of the assessment. According to the agency, the objectivity of the process was ensured by the scholars’ “highest qualifications” and the “unanimous” nature of the conclusions reached.

The conclusions themselves remained entirely unchanged during the renewed approval process: the text is identical to the 2023 version. The assessment again states that the UOC “continues to remain in a relationship of subordination” to the ROC, does not function as an independent Church, and has not proclaimed autocephaly.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that representatives of the UOC commented on the court’s annulment of the DESS expert assessment.

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