Kyiv Metropolitanate Challenges Illegal Decision of Kyiv Regional Council in Court
Lawyers of the Kyiv Metropolis have appealed the regional council's decision on facilitating the transfer of UOC communities to other denominations.
The Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has filed a lawsuit seeking to annul the decision of the Kyiv Regional Council dated February 26, 2026. This was reported by the UOC press service.
By the contested decision, the regional council effectively called upon local self-government bodies to facilitate the transfer of UOC communities to other denominations and to exercise control over the property of religious communities. According to the lawyers, such actions exceed the powers of local self-government bodies and create additional pressure on believers.
They point out that the Kyiv City Council, in its document, refers to the decision of the State Ethnopolitics Service regarding the affiliation of the Kyiv Metropolis with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC); however, the legality of the SESP decision itself is currently being contested in court and has not been definitively established.
As the UOJ previously reported, the Kyiv Regional Council adopted a decision calling on local authorities to facilitate the transfer of UOC communities to other denominations. The Kyiv Metropolis insists that the Constitution of Ukraine guarantees the separation of Church and State, and that matters of canonical affiliation of religious communities may be decided exclusively by their own members — without interference from state bodies or local self-government authorities. In the statement of claim, the party asks the court to declare the regional council's decision unlawful and to annul it.
