UOC-KP: Any decisions by OCU about Kyiv Patriarchate are canonically null
The Kyiv Patriarchate has responded to threats from the “synod” of Epifaniy Dumenko, accusing his structure of lacking canonical jurisdiction over Ukraine.
On April 3, 2026, the UOC-KP’s media relations department issued an official statement in response to claims made by the structure led by Dumenko. The organization stressed that any decrees issued by his structure concerning its clergy “are canonically null, not subject to execution, and cannot be recognized as valid under any circumstances.”
According to representatives of the Kyiv Patriarchate, Dumenko’s organization has no canonical jurisdiction whatsoever over the territory of Ukraine.
The statement also emphasized that the current head of the UOC-KP, “Patriarch” Nikodym, “has never been a member of the OCU” and has belonged exclusively to the Kyiv Patriarchate since 1993. The organization added that its leader “has never been suspended from ministry,” and therefore any attempts to challenge his status are without force.
“The active attempts by the leadership of this structure to prove that the Kyiv Patriarchate allegedly ‘does not exist’ are the best proof that it does exist,” the press service said. It described the opposing statements as “the product of the fevered imagination of an odious leadership.”
Earlier, the OCU accused members of the UOC-KP of “crimes against canonical order.”
