Ukraine's ultimatum to Russian Orthodox Christians

Kiev has ordered the pro-Russian UOC to sever all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate by 18 August. It currently has around 10,000 parishes, a number now equivalent to that of the autocephalous Orthodox Church. Defending Metropolitan Onufryj - who has always maintained a balance between rejecting war and maintaining ties with the Russian Church - is Larisa Brodetskaja, a veteran of the Ukrainian armed forces in the resistance against Moscow's troops.

Kiev (AsiaNews) - Ukraine's State Service for Ethnic Policy has ordered the pro-Russian Orthodox Church (UPZ) to sever all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate within a month. It is giving it until 18 August before being dissolved by the authorities for ‘violating the law on freedom of conscience and religious associations’ due to its affiliation with the Russian Church, whose activities are prohibited on Ukrainian territory as they are linked to the aggression of the Muscovite enemy.

According to the latest checks, the state services have again found ‘clear signs’ of this link between the Kiev Metropolis of the UPZ Church and the ‘banned’ Patriarchate, and the month's notice is the last chance allowed by Ukrainian law, with a maximum extension of one month.

The UOC has the right to appeal to the State Service, which will issue its verdict within a month, and if the appeal is not upheld and the documents are not corrected, then the UOC will have to go to court.

The court's ruling will put an end to the matter, which has been dragging on for over a year, following the decision by the Kiev parliament to subject the UPZ Church to such checks.

In the event of a conviction, the court will appoint a special commission to terminate all activities of the religious communities, depriving them of their rights to use state and municipal property, and the clergy of this Church will no longer have the right to celebrate religious services in any public or private building.

Currently, there are about 10,000 UPZ parishes, now equivalent in number to the autocephalous PZU Orthodox Church, and there are still several monasteries openly linked to the Russian Church.

In fact, there is no single legal entity for the UPZ Church, which is organised into different eparchies, parishes and monastic communities, each of which will require a specific court ruling.

In June 2022, after Russia's invasion, the UPZ synod led by Metropolitan Onufryj (Berezovskij) condemned Moscow's aggression, but without legally formalising its independence from the patriarchate, and many bishops and priests continue to support, more or less openly, the actions of the Russian government and army, with several cases of arrests for collaboration. Berezovskij himself has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, which he held alongside his Russian citizenship.

In recent weeks, groups of Orthodox faithful belonging to the UOC have organised a series of demonstrations in support of the metropolitan, even launching a Telegram channel entitled

“We are with His Eminence Onufryj”, which collects videos of support from many Ukrainian citizens who are siding with “their true shepherd”.. One of the main activists in this protest is Larisa Brodetskaja, a veteran of the Ukrainian armed forces in the resistance against the Russians, as a volunteer and doctor on the front line.

In a sign of rejection of the “state persecution” against the Church, she has returned all the honours she has received over the years, stating that ‘if you take away the metropolitan's citizenship, you must also take away mine, because I am like him and like millions of other faithful whom you are outraging.’

Metropolitan Onufryj himself has not reacted publicly to the decision to revoke his citizenship, and in general in recent years he has not wanted to issue explicit messages of condemnation or approval of the two sides in the conflict, confirming his position of balance between rejection of the war and the desire not to break with the tradition of the Ukrainian Church in its link with the Russian Church.

He has not participated in the meetings of the Patriarchate's Synod and has not been to Moscow since 2022, although several other UPZ bishops and priests have visited the Russian capital and attended meetings and audiences with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (Gundjaev), who in turn protests against “violations of religious freedom” in Ukraine, in the confrontation between the two souls of Orthodoxy.