During the full-scale invasion, the Moscow Patriarchate experienced a significant decline in support. Surveys indicate that only 4 to 5 percent of our fellow citizens back the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In contrast, approximately 55 percent of our fellow citizens support the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Metropolitan Yevstratiy (Zorya), spokesperson for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), made these statements during a press conference titled "The (Un)holy War: How the Moscow Patriarchate Lies About 'Religious Oppression' and Supports Kremlin Agents in Ukraine," as reported by Orthodox Ukraine.
His Eminence noted that over the years, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has lost more than 2,000 communities, which have legally transferred to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
“We estimate that there are approximately 9,000 communities belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” His Eminence stated when asked about the actual number of parishes in both jurisdictions. “At the same time, the Moscow Patriarchate and Metropolitan Onufriy, who leads it in Ukraine, have lost real control over the communities that remain under their jurisdiction but are located in occupied territories, such as Crimea, Donbas, and southern Ukraine.”
Metropolitan Yevstratiy explained that, over the years, the Moscow Patriarchate and Patriarch Kirill (Gundyayev) have directly subordinated these communities to the Russian Orthodox Church. In some cases, they have even appointed new leaders from the Russian Federation. There are approximately 3,000 such communities. As a result, more than 5,000 communities have effectively left the active leadership of Metropolitan Onufriy and his organization. According to statistics, there are about 7,000 communities that he officially oversees on paper.
Therefore, when propagandists claim that the Moscow Patriarchate is the largest religious organization in Ukraine, this is unequivocally false. This claim is misleading in terms of public support and also in reference to the statistics of religious communities that are officially registered in Ukraine.
Bishop Yevstratiy did not specify which sociological studies were referenced in his statements.