Metropolia to DESS: Your order is a fiction, unrelated to the UOC
The Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has replied to the Department for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), denouncing its latest directive as nothing more than a political ultimatum disguised as law.
On July 21, 2025, the Kyiv Metropolia received a letter from DESS ordering it to “eliminate signs of affiliation” with the Russian Orthodox Church. In an open statement published on August 16 and signed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, the UOC made clear: this is not a legitimate legal act but a manipulative threat, built on the personal prejudices of officials rather than on facts or law.
“The received letter with its ‘directive’ is the predictable outcome of a long process, and by its content it is less a legal act of a state authority than a public ultimatum directed at the supreme leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, founded not on official documents and objective facts but on the subjective opinions of its head,” the UOC wrote.
According to the UOC, the so-called investigation that led to this directive was riddled with secrecy and bias. No order commissioning the probe was ever received by the Church, no results were officially communicated, and the Metropolia was denied the chance to present its position. Even worse, much of the evidence used was either classified or drawn from a foreign state currently waging war against Ukraine. “A religious body cannot be held accountable for the actions of third parties,” the Church stressed.
The statement also blasted Law No. 3894-IX, which has given cover to violations of religious freedom under the pretext of “national security.” Such reasoning, the Metropolia pointed out, is absent from international law, in particular, in the European Convention or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which recognizes religious pluralism as a cornerstone of democracy. A state has no right to dictate belief, still less to restrict faith by invoking security.
Equally telling was the makeup of the investigative group. Its members lacked theological or canonical competence, and many had publicly voiced hostility to the UOC long before this process began. “These facts prove the absence of independence or expertise, making any claim to objectivity impossible,” the UOC declared.
The Church has already filed suit to suspend the DESS directive.
Moreover, the Metropolia was not involved in the investigation, received no requests for documents or explanations, which violates Ukrainian law. Meanwhile, the authorities ignored the UOC’s real social and humanitarian work: assistance to both military and civilians, support for displaced persons, purchasing vehicles and aid supplies, organizing hot meals, and sheltering tens of thousands of people.
The Kyiv Metropolia reminded the public of what the officials chose to ignore: more than 241 million hryvnias in humanitarian aid since the start of the war, including food, shelter, vehicles, and relief for both military and civilians. “Is this work of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church again being deliberately brushed aside by DESS?” the Metropolia asked.
The conclusion of the open letter left no doubt: the July 17 order demanding the elimination of alleged “signs of affiliation” is a gross interference in the internal life of the Church, a violation of both Ukrainian and international law, issued even before courts had ruled on the legality of DESS’s actions. Worse still, it contradicts Ukraine’s own National Security Strategy adopted on March 25, 2021, which explicitly forbids stoking religious conflict.
“The directive received by the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC is openly manipulative, utterly detached from objectivity, and has nothing to do with the real life of the Church,” the letter states.
After analyzing the document, the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC stated that “the clauses of the directive obliging us to eliminate supposed violations of the legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations are a pure fiction, bear no relation to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and therefore cannot be accepted for execution.”
As the UOJ previously reported, criminal cases have been opened against DESS head Viktor Yelensky for inciting interreligious hatred.
