Court Postpones Hearing on State’s Bid to Ban Kyiv Metropolis of UOC Once Again

Faithful of the UOC outside the courthouse. Photo: Telegram channel “Fortress Lavra.”

KYIV — On Oct. 30, a hearing was held in the Sixth Court of Appeals in Kyiv regarding the lawsuit filed by the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) seeking to terminate the activities of the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The session lasted about five and a half hours, including a break.

As first reported by UOJ's Ukrainian branch, the Metropolis’ attorney, Archpriest Mykyta Chekman, shared that the court granted the UOC’s motion to obtain all documents that served as the basis for the investigations and the issuance of various orders.

“The State Service for Ethnopolitics did not provide all the documents — in particular, this concerned an internal memo that they classified as ‘for official use only’ after receiving our legal request. Therefore, the court granted our motion,” said the priest.

He also noted that many of the faithful submitted petitions to join the case as third parties. More than a thousand such petitions have already been received by the court, with another 300 still pending in the registry.

“Since there are so many of them, we, as representatives of the Kyiv Metropolis, did not have the opportunity to review them and therefore filed a motion to postpone the hearing for that purpose. All these matters — the inclusion of the faithful and certain legal entities, including diocesan administrations and monasteries — will be decided at the next hearing, after all parties have had a chance to review the materials,” Fr. Mykyta emphasized.

During the judge’s reading of the list of names of those seeking to participate in the proceedings as third parties, the attorney noted that the judge was reading from a document titled ‘Ruling’ (Ukhvala), which normally refers to an already issued court decision.

“So, has a ruling already been made? Why are we gathered here then?” the lawyer asked the judge. The judge responded that it was not an ‘Ukhvala’ but a “draft,” though he refused to show the lawyers the document’s title.

Because the parties needed time to review a large volume of data, the court decided to postpone the hearing for a month and a half. The next session is scheduled for Dec. 11, 2025, at 10 a.m.

Throughout the proceedings, hundreds of UOC faithful prayed outside the courthouse. This marks the second time that the hearing has been postponed.

Previously, UOJ reported that the hearing scheduled for Sept. 30, 2025, did not take place due to the illness of one of the judges.

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