Hearing in DESS lawsuit against UOC's Kyiv Metropolis postponed

Illustrative image of court proceedings in the case against the UOC’s Kyiv Metropolis. Photo: UOJ

On July 22, 2026, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal in Kyiv postponed consideration of the lawsuit filed by Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience against the UOC’s Kyiv Metropolis until September 10. The next hearing is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., according to the Metropolis’s lawyer, Archpriest Nikita Chekman.

Before the hearing began, UOC faithful held a prayer vigil outside the courthouse. During the proceedings, the court called a recess, after which the judges continued reading out the names of citizens who had applied to join the case as third parties. Around 10,000 such applications were submitted in total.

Outside the courthouse, OCU supporters staged a provocation, walking near the praying faithful with a bucket and pouring an unidentified liquid onto the ground. The believers did not engage with them and continued reciting Psalm 90 together.

After the hearing was postponed, the lawyer for the Kyiv Metropolis thanked Orthodox Christians for their prayers and support.

The court proceedings have been ongoing since September 2025, when DESS filed a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the UOC’s Kyiv Metropolis. Church representatives filed a counterclaim demanding that the actions of the head of the state agency be declared unlawful and that the order approving the religious expert assessment of the UOC Statute be overturned. In May 2026, the cassation court overturned the decision to separate the claims contained in the counterclaim.

As the UOJ reported earlier, DESS claimed that the Pochaiv Lavra was “affiliated” with the Russian Orthodox Church.

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