Orthodox Church of Ukraine

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine ( uk, Православна церква України, Pravoslavna tserkva Ukrainy; OCU) is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church whose canonical territory is Ukraine.

The church was united at the unification council in Kyiv on 15 December 2018 as a condition for recognition of it and was granted the tomos of autocephaly (decree of ecclesial independence) by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul on 5 January 2019. The unification council voted to unite all the existing Ukrainian Orthodox major jurisdictions: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) as well as a part of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (a branch of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, which claims jurisdiction over Ukraine). The Unification Council elected Epiphanius Dumenko – previously the Metropolitan of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Bila Tserkva (UOC-KP) – as its primate, the Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine.

According to the statute that the OCU adopted at the unification council, "Orthodox Christians of Ukrainian provenance in the Orthodox diaspora" should henceforth be subject to the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Article 4 of the Statute). This provision is also enshrined in the OCU's tomos of autocephaly. In March 2019 Metropolitan Epiphanius said that the transfer of parishes of the dissolved Kyiv Patriarchate to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate had already begun. The creation and subsequent recognition of the OCU by other autocephalous Orthodox Churches have met staunch opposition and attempts at subversion on the part of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as well as the government of Russia.

Name

The official name of the church is the "Orthodox Church of Ukraine" (the use of the name "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" is also allowed). The style of its primate is " His Beatitude (name), Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine". The Tomos of autocephaly of the OCU refers to the OCU as the "Most Holy Church of Ukraine".

On 30 January 2019, the OCU was legally registered under the name "Kyїvan Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Church of Ukraine)" (). The head of the Ukrainian Department of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Culture, Andriy Yurash, clarified: "These two terms he UOC and the OCUwill be used as synonymous and this is expressly agreed with the Phanar. Therefore, the use of the terms, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, is affixed precisely to the administrative unit that is called the Kyivan Metropolitanate".

In his annual report at the hierarchal assembly on 15 December 2020, Metropolitan Epiphanius I clarified that names of the following churches – "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church", "Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate" and "Kyiv Patriarchate" – are all additional historical names for the same Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

History

Metropolitanate of Kyiv

In 988, as a result of the christianization of Kyivan Rus by Volodymyr I, the first Christian church on the Ukrainian territory was formed under the name of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, with its center in the city of Kyiv. In 1448, the Council of Moscow's Bishops, without the consent of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, appointed Jonah, Bishop of Riazan, Metropolitan of Kyiv. This event is considered the beginning of the separation of the Church of Muscovy. After the Union of Brest in 1596, there was a split in Ukrainian Christianity, which has divided into Orthodox and Greek Catholics.

Annexation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv by the Moscow Patriarchate

In 1685, the Moscow Patriarchate began the annexation of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, ordaining Metropolitan Gedeon of Kyiv in Muscovy. In 1686, through simony, Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysius IV (who was later anathema) issued a Synodal letter granting the right to ordinate the Metropolitan of Kyiv to the Moscow Patriarch in the manner of austerity elected by the council of clergy and the faithful of his diocese. It was obligatory that the Metropolitan of Kyiv should mention the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as his First Hierarch in any service, proclaiming and confirming his canonical dependence on the Mother Church of Constantinople, but none of these conditions were met. The Metropolitanate of Kyiv actually became one of the ordinary dioceses of the Moscow Patriarchate, when Peter the Great in 1722 appointed Barlaam (Voniatovych) to the rank of archbishop, not metropolitan. The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the process of granting autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine during its meeting on 11 October 2018 canceled the Synodal Letter of 1686 due to simony and its gross violation of the rights of an independent metropolitanate.

Attempts to restore the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in the jurisdiction of Constantinople

The Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa, seeking for the independence of the Cossack Hetmanate, was among the first to return to the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. A multitude of churches were built all over Ukraine during his reign in the Ukrainian Baroque style. Despite the anathema, laid on Mazepa by the Russian Church in 1708, it was not recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which considers it uncanonical and imposed with political motives as a means of political and ideological repression, with no religious, theological or canonical reasons.

The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, written in 1710, which is also considered to be the one of the first examples of constitutional documents in the world, proclaimed the Eastern Orthodox faith to be the faith of Ukraine, with the Metropolitanate of Kyiv acquiring the direct subordination to the Apostolic Church of Constantinople. Due to the Battle of Poltava, when Charles XII of Sweden's and Hetman Mazepa's armies were defeated by Peter I of Russia, the constitution never came into power.

Proclaiming of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

In the wake of the breakup of the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians again sought autonomy or autocephaly from Moscow. The independent, autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church was proclaimed by the Directorate of Ukraine led by Symon Petliura in 1919.

The Law on the Supreme Government of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church stipulated that the Supreme Church Authority in Ukraine would lose all dependence on the Russian Patriarch and move to the All-Ukrainian Church Council.

In 1921 an All-Ukrainian Sobor was called in Kyiv, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was declared independent from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Sobor delegates chose Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky as head of the church. In this form, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church existed until 1936 when, due to Soviet pressure, it was liquidated, with some of its members emigrating to the United States.

For a short period of time, the UAOC was restored during occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany in 1942. This period lasted till the return of the Red Army in 1944, after that the UAOC was again liquidated for a second time and remained structured only in the Ukrainian diaspora.

In 1990, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was reinstated in Ukraine, and the former Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada metropolitan Mstyslav (Skrypnyk) was enthroned as a patriarch. Since 2000, the church primate has been the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

Unification Сouncil

Following months of negotiations and preparations, on 15 December 2018, all the bishops of the UOC-KP and the UAOC as well as two metropolitans of the UOC-MP convened in Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral, presided over by the metropolitan of the ecumenical throne, , to merge into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, elect their primate and adopt the statute of the newly independent Church of Ukraine.

Metropolitan Epiphanius of the UOC-KP, who had been chosen on 13 December by the UOC-KP as its only candidate, and was believed to have been Filaret Denysenko's right arm and protégé, was elected Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Ukraine by the unification council by the second round of voting.

Epiphanius later made clear that no important decision would be taken by his church until he had received the church's formal ecclesiastical decree (or "tomos").

The Ecumenical Patriarch congratulated and blessed the newly elected metropolitan on the day of his election and said the newly elected primate was invited to come to Istanbul to concelebrate the Divine Liturgy with the Ecumenical Patriarch and receive the Orthodox Church of Ukraine's tomos on 6 January 2019.

Shortly after the Council, Metropolitan Epiphanius said that the OCU had about 7 thousand parishes.In the CPC, the number of parishes and commented on the seizure of temples
Ukrayinska Pravda (21 December 2018)

Advertisements to promote a united Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been made months prior to the Unification Council. Petro Poroshenko declared "not a dime" from the Ukrainian State had been paid for them, that he paid those advertisements with his own money. Poroshenko refused to state how much had been spent.

Following the Council, Filaret Denysenko, who had been the primate and Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (1995–2018), became the "honorary patriarch" of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, serving in the St Volodymyr's Cathedral.

Granting of the Tomos of autocephaly

On 5 January 2019, Bartholomew I of Constantinople and Metropolitan Epiphanius celebrated a Divine Liturgy in St. George's Cathedral in Istanbul. The Tomos was signed thereafter, also in St. George's Cathedral. The Tomos "had come into force from the moment of its signing." The signing of the tomos officially established the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

After the Tomos was signed, Patriarch Batholomew delivered a speech addressing Metropolitan Epiphanius. President Poroshenko and Metropolitan Epiphanius also delivered speeches, Epiphanius addressing Poroshenko by saying this: "Your name, Mr President, will remain forever in the history of the Ukrainian people and the church next to the names of our princes Volodymyr the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, Kostiantyn Ostrozky and Hetman Ivan Mazepa".

On 6 January 2019, after a Divine Liturgy concelebrated by Metropolitan Epiphanius and Patriarch Bartholomew, the latter read out the Tomos of the OCU and then handed it to Metropolitan Epiphanius. President Poroshenko was present during the signing and handing over of the Tomos.

On 7 January 2019, Metropolitan Epiphanius celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Saint Sophia's Cathedral, where the Tomos of autocephaly was exposed during the liturgy. The Tomos was then put on display in the refectory church of Saint Sophia's Cathedral in perpetuity, and exposed for the public and tourists to view daily.

On 8 January 2019, the Tomos was brought back to Istanbul so that all the members of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate could sign the Tomos. The representative of the press service of the OCU, priest Ivan Sydor, said the Tomos was valid after the signature of the Ecumenical Patriarch, "but according to the procedure, there must also be the signatures of those bishops who take part in the synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate." Former press secretary of the UOC-KP, Eustratius (Zorya) ( uk), declared the Ecumenical Patriarch recognised the OCU by signing the tomos of autocephaly and by concelebrating the liturgy with Epiphanius I while considering Epiphanius as primate of the OCU. The Tomos was signed by all members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 9 January 2019. The ''tomos'', signed by all members of the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, was brought back to Ukraine on the morning of 10 January 2019.

The Tomos was manufactured on a parchment by the renowned painter and calligrapher of Mount Athos, hieromonk Lucas from the Xenophontos monastery.

President Poroshenko, accompanied by Metropolitan Epiphanius, visited several regions of Ukraine to present the Tomos.

The Ukrainian Minister of education said that in 2019 the tomos of autocephaly would be included in the history manuals of the 11th grade students.

Enthronement of the Primate and first meeting of the Synod

It was planned that Epiphanius would be enthroned on 3 February 2019, which is also the date of his 40th birthday. Thereafter, the first synod of the OCU was to take place. The monasteries of Mount Athos refused to send a delegation for the enthronement ceremony "not because the Fathers do not recognise its legitimacy or canonicity, but because they have chosen to stick with what has become official practice and accept invitations only to the enthronement of their ecclesiastical head, the Ecumenical Patriarch." Two abbots of Mount Athos were planned to come at the enthronement but were to be part of the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On 1 February, once in Kyiv, Archimandrite Ephrem, one of the two Athonite abbots, was hospitalised in consequence of a heart attack. On 2 February, Archimandrite Ephrem was visited by Metropolitan Epiphanius.

As planned, Epiphanius was enthroned in St. Sophia's Cathedral on 3 February 2019. Filaret was not present due to health conditions, so he sent his written congratulations to the primate Epiphanius, Filaret's congratulations were written by him and read at the end of the liturgy. Archimandrite Ephrem, who had been hospitalised on 1 February 2019, was not present at the ceremony of enthronement, but a hieromonk of Ephrem's monastery was present during the ceremony of enthronement. A monk from a skete of the Koutloumousiou Monastery was also present during the ceremony of enthronement.

The first meeting of the Holy Synod of the OCU was held on 5 February 2019.

Initial public statements by the Primate

In an interview published on 13 February 2019, Epiphanius said what were the main task the OCU had to fulfill:

On 16 February 2019, the primate of the OCU, Epiphanius, said the OCU would implement reforms "normally and gradually" He gave the example of switching to the Orthodox new calendar. Before that, on 16 December 2018, he had also talked about switching to the Orthodox new calendar.

In an interview published on 1 March 2019, Epiphanius told the BBC:

In the same interview, when asked if he would allow LGBT to take communion, Epiphanius declared: "We have a clear position ..this is a sin that we have to ..speak openly about .. This is a way of life that is incompatible with Christian views. Therefore, this is the position of the Orthodox Church, the position of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, and in this matter we are unshakable. Because we are based on the foundations of the Scriptures, which clearly states that this is a sin. ..people must repent of their sins, correct their mistakes. And if a person repents, if the person recognises it, then of course the person can participate in the sacraments."

Moscow Patriarchate parishes' switchover to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Following the formation of the OCU, communities (parishes) of the UOC-MP began to switch over to the jurisdiction of the OCU ().

On 16 December 2018, the cathedral of Metropolitan Symeon joined the OCU. Simeon was one of the bishops of the UOC-MP who had taken part in the unification council.

On 17 December 2018, the statement of the Synodal Department of the military clergy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was quoted by mass media as saying that the Federal Security Service of Russia, along with members of the Moscow Patriarchate, had created mobile groups to prevent communities in Ukraine from switching from the UOC-MP to the OCU, such groups being present in each diocese of the UOC-MP and composed of a lawyer and several brawny men.

On 19 December 2018, the cathedral of Metropolitan , one of the two UOC-MP bishops who had taken part in the unification council, joined the OCU.

On 17 March 2019, TSN reported that more than 500 parishes had switched over to the OCU. Later in March, the primate of the UOC-MP contested the statistics and acknowledged 42 cases of legitimate defections only while attributing scores of others to illicit activity. On 30 March, the UOC-MP acknowledged the transfer of 61 parishes, while the OCU claimed 506 had been transferred.

In April 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many UOC-MP parishes signaled their intention to switch allegiance. The attitude and stance of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to the war is one of the oft-quoted reasons.

Conflict with Filaret

A conflict erupted between Filaret Denysenko and Epiphanius in the spring of 2019 over the model of governance, the management of the diaspora, the name, and the statute of the OCU.
Around 20 million of Ukrainians live in a foreign country and most of them are Orthodox. U.S.A. and Canada host the more numerous communities. According to Filaret's statement in May 2019, the agreement reached at the Unification Council was as follow: "The primate is responsible for the external representation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), and the patriarch is responsible for the internal church life in Ukraine, but in cooperation with the primate. The primate shall do nothing in the church without the consent of the patriarch. The patriarch chairs the meetings of the Holy Synod and the UOC meetings for the sake of preserving unity, its growth, and affirmation." Filaret said that agreement had not been fulfilled.

On 20 June 2019, a group of clergy which, apart from Filaret himself, comprised only two bishops, both being from Russia, convened in St. Volodomyr Cathedral in Kyiv and adopted a document that purported to cancel the decisions of the 15 December 2018 unification council; the document stated that the UOC-KP continued to exist and had a state registration, while Filaret remained its head.

On 14 December 2019, Metropolitan Epiphanius informed the Council of Bishops, which was held in Kyiv on the occasion of the anniversary of the creation of the OCU and was not attended by Filaret, that the legal procedure of liquidation (terminarion) of the UAOC as well as the UOC-KP as legal entities had been completed the day before. Among other things, the Council of Bishops made a decision to "urge the Honorable Patriarch Filaret and his followers to seek reconciliation and end self-isolation".
Over the 15 percent of the Ukrainians would like to have the Patriarch Filaret as the Primate of the national and the Diaspora Churches, despite his age and their historical names.

Church administration

According to the OCU's Statute, the highest governing body of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is its Local Council, which is an assembly of clergy and laity (Article 2, paragraph 1). The Local Council consists of all hierarch, ruling and others, clergy, monks, and laity from each eparchy (diocese), that were elected by eparchial assemblies. The Local Council is convened regularly by its chairman, that is Metropolitan of Kyiv, and the permanent Holy Synod at least once in five years. Also the Local Council may be convened in extraordinary way, always when its chairman wishes. The Local Council elects the Metropolitan of Kyiv out of three candidates proposed by the Hierarchal Assembly (Council of Bishops). The Local Council may approve the Statute and introduce amendments to it. It also approves amendments to the Statute submitted by the Hierarchal Assembly.

The Holy Hierarchal Assembly (Council of Bishops) consists of the Metropolitan of Kyiv and all eparchial hierarchs (Article 3, paragraph 1).

The permanent Holy Synod of the OCU is to be composed of twelve rotating members and chaired by the Metropolitan of Kyiv. For the duration of the transitional period, three permanent members of the Synod have been appointed: the former Primates of the UOC-KP ( Filaret) and the UAOC ( Makariy), and the former UOC-MP Metropolitan Symeon (Shostatsky).

Dioceses of the OCU

As of late March 2019, the following statute of diocesan administrations had been registered within the OCU's jurisdiction:

# Vinnytsia- Tulchyn diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Vinnytsia
# Vinnytsia- Bar diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-MP, Vinnytsia
# Vinnytsia-Bratslav diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Vinnytsia
# Volynskyi diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Lutsk
# Volodymyr-Volynski diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Volodymyr-Volynskyi
# Dnipropetrovsk diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Dnipro
# Donetsk diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Mariupol
# Donetsk-Sloviansk diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Sloviansk
# Zhytomyr-Ovruch diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Zhytomyr
# Zhytomyr-Polissia diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Zhytomyr
# Zakarpattia diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Mukachevo
# Mukachevo-Carpathian diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Uzhhorod
# Uzhhorod-Khust diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Uzhhorod
# Zaporizhzhia diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Zaporizhia
# Ivano-Frankivsk diocese of the UOC (OUC), previously UAOC, Ivano-Frankivsk
# Ivano-Frankivsk-Halych diocese of the UOC (OUC), previously UOC-KP, Ivano-Frankivsk
# Kolomyia diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Kolomyia
# Kyiv diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Kyiv (central diocese)
# Pereyaslav-Vyshneve diocese of the UOC (OCU), Kyiv
# Crimean diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Simferopol (temporarily persecuted by Russian administration)
# Kropyvnytskyi diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Kropyvnytskyi
# Luhansk diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Severdonetsk
# Lviv diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Lviv
# Lviv-Sokal diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Lviv
# Drohobych-Sambir diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Drohobych
# Mykolaiv diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Mykolaiv
# Odesa diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Odesa
# Poltava diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Poltava
# Rivne diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Rivne
# Rivne-Volyn diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Rivne
# Sumy diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Sumy
# Taurida diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Kherson
# Kherson diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Kherson
# Ternopil diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Ternopil
# Ternopil-Buchach diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Ternopil
# Ternopil-Terebovlia diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Kobylovoloky
# Kharkiv diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Cherkasy
# Chernihiv diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Chernihiv
# Chernivtsi diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Chernivtsi
# Chernivtsi-Kitsman diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Chernivtsi
# Chernivtsi-Khotyn diocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UAOC, Chernivtsi

* Pereyaslav- ila Tserkvadiocese of the UOC (OCU), previously UOC-KP, Kyiv (merged with Kyiv diocese)
* Theotokos diocese (UOC-KP), not fully regulated
* Dnipropetrovsk-Zaporizhia diocese (UAOC), not registered
* Khmelnytskyi diocese (UAOC), not registered
* Cherkasy-Kirovohrad diocese (UAOC), not registered
* Kyiv diocese (UAOC), not registered
* Lviv-Sambir diocese (UAOC), not registered
* West European exarchate (UAOC), undetermined
* East Moldovan diocese (UOC-KP), turned to the Romanian Orthodox Church
* European exarchate (UOC-KP), abandoned
** Paris diocese (UOC-KP), abandoned
* Russian exarchate (UOC-KP), abandoned
** Bilhorod diocese (UOC-KP), abandoned
* Odesa-Black Sea diocese (UAOC), not registered before unification

According to the information presented by Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine in December 2019, the total number of the dioceses in the OCU stood at 44.

Reactions from domestic and international state officials

Ukraine

During various official speeches, Poroshenko stressed the importance of Ukraine receiving its tomos of autocephaly which Ukraine "deserved", is the equivalent of "a charter of kraine'sspiritual independence", was comparable to a referendum on Ukraine's independence and would be "another pillar of Ukrainian independence". On the 27th anniversary of the referendum on independence of Ukraine, Poroshenko declared the tomos of autocephaly was the equivalent of Ukraine saying Away from Moscow!' – 'Europe now!

On 15 December 2018, Poroshenko made a speech after Epiphanius' election, in which he said the autocephalous church would be "without Putin, without Kirill", but "with God and with Ukraine". He added autocephaly was "part of our state pro-European and pro-Ukrainian strategy".

On 6 January, after the OCU had received its tomos, President Poroshenko declared: "His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew already has a special place in the history of Ukraine. With all that he did, due to his wisdom and leadership, his devotion to Ukraine and Orthodoxy, I would say that His All-Holiness will be considered a co-founder of a new Ukraine. This is a very special and historic mission".

On 7 January 2019, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine, with the creation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has finally severed ties with Russia. He added: "The creation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine is the pledge of our independence. This is the foundation of our spiritual freedom. We've severed the last ties that connected us with Moscow and its fantasies about Ukraine as the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is not and won't be anymore." He made this declaration at the Christmas liturgy in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv where the tomos of autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was shown to the public.

Russia

On 12 October 2018, the press service of the president of Russia made it known that the issue of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine was the subject of deliberations at the situational meeting Russia's president had with the permanent members of the Security Council of Russia The president's spokesman Dmitry Peskov

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