Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The meeting was broadcast on YouTube channel UN.
“Only in 2022, 129 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were seized. At the same time, the legal registration of its new communities is completely blocked,” the metropolitan said. He also recalled how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deprived some of the bishops of the UOC of citizenship, calling it “a form of political repression.” The Metropolitan also remembered the searches in the churches of the UOC, which were carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine.
UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ilse Brands Kegris at the same meeting expressed concern about the problems with respect for the rights to freedom of religion on Ukrainian territory. She also called on both sides of the conflict – both Russia and Ukraine – to respect this right.
The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is represented by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which left the Moscow Patriarchate by decision of the Local Council on May 27, 2022, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received autocephaly in 2019.