The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphanius said on the telethon that during the war about 600 communities transferred from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
"Since the Unification Council and the receipt of the Tomos, there are now more than a thousand communities, and in the last three months, about 600 new communities have joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the Moscow Patriarchate," he said.
He added that they join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine almost every day, and called on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate to engage in dialogue to create a truly unified Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Earlier, Epiphanius said that half of the monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra are ready to move to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
- With the beginning of the invasion of Russian troops, some representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate began to cooperate with the occupiers and provide them with assistance.
- On March 30, the Verkhovna Rada registered a bill banning the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) on the territory of Ukraine. In some cities , the Moscow Patriarchate has been banned at the local level.
- In May the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of MP blamed Russia for the attack on Petro Poroshenko and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and in late May the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of MP Council recognized the full independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Russia and condemned the war in Ukraine.