OCU cleric's church preference poll delivers unexpected results

Levytskyi (left) and Dumenko. Photo: Levytskyi's Instagram

Andriy Levytskyi, an OCU "priest" from Rivne, posted a question on Threads: "Which Church in Ukraine do you prefer?" The post attracted nearly 20,000 views and around 365 comments. However, the results were far from what the OCU representative might have expected.

Among users who named a specific denomination, 56% expressed support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In addition to simply writing "UOC," respondents described it as "the canonical Church," "the persecuted Church," or "the one being persecuted." The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) came second with 18%, followed by the OCU with 12%. Protestant communities – Baptists, Pentecostals, and Lutherans – were chosen by 9% of commenters, while 5% preferred the Roman Catholic Church.

The distribution of likes was even more striking. Responses supporting the UOC received approximately 85% of all likes on comments answering the question. Responses favoring the UGCC accounted for 6%, while those supporting the OCU received just 4%. Atheistic and ironic comments attracted 4% of likes, with all other options combined receiving about 1%.

UOC supporters explained their choice primarily by citing the Church's canonical status and unity with worldwide Orthodoxy. "The only Church in Ukraine that is a Church in the full canonical and biblical sense of the word is the UOC," one user wrote.

Another commenter said she chose the Church whose members could enter any Orthodox church in the world and participate in confession and Communion. According to her, the OCU does not offer this possibility. She also pointed out that Ukrainians serve as clergy in the UOC and that its faithful fight and die in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Another user wrote that he was honored to belong to the "persecuted canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church" and asked God to give him the strength not to betray it. Several commenters emphasized that what mattered most to them was God's will, "not the will of politicians."

OCU supporters mostly relied on political arguments. They pointed to the use of Ukrainian in worship and demanded that UOC believers use the "full name – Moscow Patriarchate." Some users called the UOC a "branch of the Russian Orthodox Church" and an "FSB department."

When it became clear that most responses favored the UOC, some commenters resorted to insulting believers, using derogatory terms such as "vatniks" and "little Muscovites."

For context, a survey conducted by the Rating Sociological Group in May 2026 found that 22% of Ukrainians identified with the OCU, 10% with the UOC, and 7% with the UGCC, while 26% described themselves as "simply Orthodox."

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Dumenko had claimed the OCU had 11 times as many parishioners as the UOC.

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