Honorary Patriarch Filaret (Denisenko) has filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court, asking that the judge oblige the State Service for Ethnic Policies and Freedom of Conscience to register the resolution of the “Local Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate,” the court’s press service reports.
According to the plaintiff, this decision would cancel the termination of the religious institution “UOC-KP” and its religious center in Kyiv.
In addition, the claim asks the court to recognize as illegal the inaction of the defendant – the State Service for Ethnic Policies and Freedom of Conscience – as to the filing of the relevant resolution into a unified state register.
Currently, the District Administrative Court in Kyiv is looking into the launch of proceedings on the said administrative lawsuit.
It should be recalled that on February 11, 2021, the said court ruled to recall the City Council’s decision to rename Moscow Avenue in Kyiv into Bandera Avenue. Within a few months, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal ruled that the renaming of Stepan Bandera Avenue was in fact fully legitimate.
The District Administrative Court of Kyiv also ordered a review of history textbooks at the behest of pro-Russian politician Andriy Portnov. The Court of Appeal has later overturned the ruling.
In May this year, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by the Cabinet of Ministers and overturned a judgment by the District Administrative Court of Kyiv to declare the government’s decision on Ukrainian Spelling Issues unlawful.
In addition, before District Administrative Court of Kyiv Judge Pavlo Vovk blocked the law renaming the ROCinU, he met with ROCinU leader Onufriy to get his blessing. Judge Anna Kuzmenko has also gotten a blessing from an ROCinU cleric who in 2019 had traveled Moscow.
In addition, on September 4, 2019, the District Administrative Court in Kyiv suspended the liquidation of the UOC-KP, initiated by Honorary Patriarch Filaret himself at the Unification Council, thus satisfying the claim of the Kyiv Patriarchate’s lawyers. However, on November 11, 2019, an appellate hearing was scheduled in the case, which overturned the above-mentioned decision of the mentioned court.
The court of appeal also overturned the decision of the District Administrative Court in Kyiv, which recognized the symbols of the XX-century Galicia Division as Nazi insignia.
Later, in April, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky initiated the liquidation of the District Administrative Court in Kyiv.
