8097 Moscow Patriarchate Churches still operating in Ukraine – Opendatabot

As reported by Opendatabot, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there were 8,782 Moscow Patriarchate churches in operation. Currently, there are 8097. The peak of transitions occurred in 2023 when 386 communities converted to the OCU. However, from December of the previous year to April 2024, their number increased by only 96 churches.

The highest number of conversions took place in the Kyiv region — 164 and in Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia — 155 and 75, respectively.

Despite the full-scale war in Ukraine, 8,097 churches associated with the aggressor country continue to operate. The highest number of such religious institutions is in Donetsk — 683 communities. Following are the Dnipropetrovsk and Vinnytsia regions, with 526 churches each.

Moreover, only 22 of them indicate their affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate in their name.

Additionally, the Ministry of Justice independently supplemented the names of 42 churches, such as "Religious organization did not indicate affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate" — all of them in the Chernivtsi region. Furthermore, seven communities voluntarily changed their names from forced ones back to the original. Three churches, after such renaming, transitioned to the OCU.

It is worth noting that in early April, the Supreme Court recognized for the first time the legitimate transition from the UOC-MP to the OCU.