Moscow-Aligned Church Leader Stripped of Ukrainian Citizenship
The Ukrainian government revoked the citizenship of the head of the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on July 2 for having dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship. Dual citizenship is not formally recognized under Ukrainian law.
According to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) the citizenship of 80-year-old Metropolitan Onufriy, whose secular name is Orest Berezovsky, has been terminated. The corresponding decree was signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The SBU established that Berezovsky (Onufriy) voluntarily obtained Russian citizenship in 2002. He did not inform the authorized authorities of Ukraine about this. Afterwards, he continued to use the status of a citizen of our state,” the statement reads.
While Ukraine does not officially recognize dual citizenship, there have been well-publicized cases of oligarchs, such as Ihor Kolomoisky, who held citizenship of Israel and Cyprus, as well as Ukraine.
Often in Ukraine, the stripping of citizenship is an act that serves as a warning before further legal action.
“According to the information available to the SBU, Berezovsky (Onufriy) maintains ties with the Moscow Patriarchate [of the Russian Orthodox Church] and deliberately opposed the acquisition of canonical independence of the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Patriarchate, whose representatives openly support Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the statement says.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Moscow-aligned UOC has been viewed as a fifth column, in many cases explicitly supporting the Russian war effort on Ukrainian territory.
Although the UOC claims to have broken ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, Moscow itself disputes that claim, and many UOC hierarchs have been conspicuously ambiguous with regard to the matter.
“Despite the full-scale invasion, Berezovsky (Onufriy) actually continues to support the policy of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership, in particular Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev),” the statement claims.
The revocation of Onufriy’s citizenship is the most recent in a concerted effort by the Zelensky government to rein in the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which acts through the UOC, its effective subsidiary.
The UOC is particularly active in the Russophone eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, and its adherents’ loyalty is said to be due in large part to Onufriy’s charisma.
Metropolitan Onufriy himself said in 2023 that he “does not consider himself a citizen of Russia” and that Russia allegedly granted him citizenship based on the fact of registration while he was studying at a seminary in the territory of the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Onufriy, as cited by the Suspilne news outlet, said he had not voluntarily taken a Russian passport.
Onufriy has also said that he considered the war Russia started against Ukraine “a disgrace for the people.”
Ukraine’s leading Orthodox church, the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), has been gradually trying to fill the vacuum created by a backlash against the UOC for its ambivalence with regard to the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine.
For centuries, particularly since the beginning of the 20th century, and especially since independence, Ukraine’s religious organizations – their persecution and autonomy – have been intimately linked to the political situation.
Source: Stash Luczkiw