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Over 8,000 churches of Moscow Patriarchate remain in Ukraine

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 589 Ukrainian religious communities have moved from the patriarchate of the aggressor country to the OCU. 

Over 8,000 churches of Moscow Patriarchate remain in Ukraine
Illustrative photo
Photo: Roman Tytykalo

Almost 600 religious institutions have moved to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine since the beginning of the great war. This is evidenced by the data of Opendatabot, which has prepared a map of the UOC-MP branches in Ukraine.

Thus, 589 Ukrainian religious communities have moved from the patriarchate of the aggressor country to the OCU since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Most religious institutions have changed their patriarchy in Kyiv (138), Khmelnytskyy (125), and Vinnytsya (67) Regions.

Currently, 8,193 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) continue to operate in the country. 99% or 8,119 of them, despite the requirements of the law, have not yet shown their affiliation with the patriarchate of the aggressor country in their name.

In almost two years, only 59 religious institutions have been forced to change their names to reflect their connection to the Russian Federation in the Unified State Register. All these renamings took place during the first year of the full-scale invasion. In 2023, none of the religious institutions received such a name in the USR.

Since the beginning of the great war, only 8 religious institutions have moved to the OCU, having received a forced name in the Unified State Register.

The largest number of churches associated with the aggressor country was recorded in Donetsk Region - 683. A significant number of religious institutions of the UOC also remained in Vinnytsya Region - 534. Dnipropetrovsk Region (527) and Khmelnytskyy Region (506 religious institutions) are also in the anti-rating. 

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