The State Migration Service of Ukraine has revoked the Ukrainian citizenship of five more representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, and one of them has had his immigration permit revoked, LB.ua has learned from its own sources.
According to available data, the decision was made in early January, when the presidential decree suspended the citizenship of 13 representatives of the UOC-MP under Article 21 of the Law of Ukraine "On Citizenship." It concerns two archbishops, a bishop, and two metropolitans. In particular, the document mentions:
1. Archbishop Panteleymon of Bucha (Bashchuk Viktor Romanovych).
Panteleymon studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary, in the 1990-s he served as a monk at St. Daniel's Monastery in Moscow, was the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, was part of the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem, and was then sent to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Since 2005, he has led the Vinnytsia, Severodonetsk, Oleksandriya, and Uman dioceses at various times. In 2019, he got into a media scandal because he bought an apartment in Kyiv for more than 4 million hryvnyas.
2. Bishop Gedeon (Kharon Yuriy Samuilovych) of Makariv is the rector of the infamous "kiosk church" near the Tithe Church, which the court recently ordered to be demolished.
In 2019, border guards detained Gedeon at the Boryspil airport because he had citizenship of several countries (Ukraine, Russia, and the United States) and did not allow him to enter Ukraine. He was also accused of anti-Ukrainian propaganda and considered an adherent of the "Russian world." Gedeon returned to the United States and appealed the ruling to the Kyiv District Administrative Court, which ordered the State Migration Service to return him the citizenship of Ukraine.
3. Bishop Spyridon (Romanov Andriy Volodymyrovych) of Vyshnivets is the head of the Vasylkiv Vicariate of the Kyiv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
4. Archbishop Victor (Bykov Vladyslav Olehovych) of Artsyz is considered one of the youngest bishops of the UOC-MP. In 2017, according to media reports, the bishop tried to fly out of Odesa airport with ten thousand euros and a thousand dollars in cash. But this was discovered by border guards. The court sentenced him to an administrative penalty.
In September 2022, the Archbishop participated in the enthronement of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan of East America and New York.
5. Metropolitan Mark (Petrovtsiy Mykola Ivanovych) of Khust is considered one of the most influential bishops of the UOC-MP and perhaps the biggest lobbyist of the "Russian world" in western Ukraine. He is a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the UOC-MP. According to open sources, he has a Russian passport and refused to convene the UOC-MP Council to make a historic decision to break administrative unity with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Another representative of the UOC-MP, Metropolitan Platon (Udovenko) of Feodosiya, was banned by the Migration Service from immigration (i.e., entering Ukraine or staying in Ukraine for permanent residence by foreigners and stateless persons).
All of these representatives of the UOC-MP, according to sources, have Russian passports.