DESS: Almost 1,400 parishes "transferred" from UOC to OCU over past 3 years

The DESS head Viktor Yelensky. Photo: DESS website

Approximately 1378 religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "transferred" to the OCU during the years 2022–2025, stated the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

According to the State Service's data, 483 communities were legally "transferred" in 2022, 471 in 2023, 233 in 2024, and 191 in 2025. The largest number of the so-called transfers was recorded in the Kyiv (306), Khmelnytskyi (295), Vinnytsia (159), Zhytomyr (128), and Cherkasy (104) regions. No such changes were registered in the Luhansk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

On this topic Elladic theologian: It’s not Moscow that prevents parishes from joining OCU

Officials explained that their data are based on the official registrations of religious organizations in regional administrations. According to them, the process of "transfers" is accompanied by legal and property disputes, especially in the western regions of Ukraine.

As reported by the UOJ, Bishop Pimen stated that there were only three voluntary transfers in the Rivne Eparchy. According to the UOC parishes themselves, decisions on transfers are often made without considering the opinion of the communities, which becomes a subject of legal proceedings and appeals to government bodies.

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