As stressed by the UOC, “the present leaders of Moscow Patriarchate are incapable and not willing to bring peace and unity to the Ukrainian Church. To retain their administrative control, Moscow religious leaders opted to split Ukraine and risk the unity of the World Orthodox Church.

UOC (KP) congress believes that the solution of the UOC problem and recognition of it as the autocephalous Orthodox church in Ukraine will significantly reduce the chances of the Moscow Patriarchate to lay a claim to leadership in the World Orthodoxy and trigger off conflicts related to this issue.

UOC (KP) has accused Moscow Patriarchate of deliberately misinforming parishioners about the true situation in the Ukrainian Church.

The UOC (KP) enjoys the support of 14 million Orthodox Ukrainians, while the Moscow Patriarchate is supported by about 9.5 million, the UOC (KP) statement runs.

“Our church is not an unorthodox institution headed for a split as Moscow Patriarchate representatives are trying to portray us. It is a full-fledged Ukrainian Orthodox Church which, due to purposeful isolation by the Russian Church, temporarily has no recognized status,” the statement continues.