OCU priest Heorhii Kovalenko and UGCC Primate Svyatoslav (Shevchuk) expressed concern about the operations of the UOC (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) abroad, especially since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a comment for Channel 5, Kovalenko noted that the UOC (in unity with the MP) started to actively create parishes abroad after the Council in Feofania in May 2022, when it was announced that it had allegedly severed ties with the ROC. He believes that this may be an attempt by the Moscow Patriarchate, using the UOC (in unity with the MP) and the Ukrainian language, to spread its narratives among displaced Ukrainians, especially as anything Russian is becoming unpopular.
Kovalenko claims that this network is being developed due to the efforts of Mykola Danylevych, who has experience working in the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. According to Kovalenko, there are about a hundred such parishes in Europe that “mow down the Ukrainian Church”, especially in the northern countries. It is worth noting that in April 2024, Mykola Danylevych was charged with inciting religious hatred and justifying Russian aggression on social media.
Svyatoslav (Shevchuk) in an interview with RBC-Ukraine expressed the opinion that pro-Russian oligarchs who fled Ukraine are creating parallel Ukrainian communities in Germany with Russian money, trying to attract, in particular, Russian-speaking Ukrainians. He believes that for this purpose priests of the UOC are employed, who create centers of religious life in order to form a protest potential against the Ukrainian state in the context of the “Russian world”. Shevchuk emphasized that this is a challenge not only for the Church, but also for the Ukrainian state and diplomacy, since there is a danger of the feelings and needs of Ukrainian citizens being manipulated as the find themselves under the influence of Russian networks in Europe.
It is important to note that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, according to the Tomos, is not entitled to create parishes abroad so services for Ukrainian refugees are carried out within the framework of the Chaplaincy Mission.
