Opendatabot: there are more than 8,5 thousand churches of the UOC – MP in Ukraine, most of them in the Donetsk region
On December 19, the information-analytical platform Opendatabot published up-to-date statistics on the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine.
As of February 24, 2022, there were 8,797 churches of the UOC-MP in Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, 212 religious communities have officially transferred to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, indicating this in their new name in the unified state register. This makes up about 2% of the total number of Churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Shortly before the Russian attack in Ukraine, amendments to the law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations", came into force, according to which churches and other religious institutions associated with the Moscow Patriarchate had to show their ties with the aggressor country in the name. Otherwise, the institution will be forcibly marked in its name in the unified state register of legal entities.
Up to this point, belonging to the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate was officially indicated in the names of only 23 religious communities. Even after the amendments to the law began, none of the churches and religious organizations associated with the MP dared to fulfill this norm at their own request.
Since then, 56 religious institutions have forcibly received new official names in the unified state register of legal entities: "The religious organization did not indicate its affiliation to the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)." The full list can be viewed on the special page of the Opendatabot Register of Churches of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Currently, the largest number of religious organizations subordinate to the aggressor country is recorded in Donetsk, Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia regions. Fewer branches of the UOC-MP are located in Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions: at the end of June, Lviv officially banned the activities of the MP.
According to the report, it is currently impossible to accurately calculate the full number of religious communities of the UOC-MP in the unified state register of legal entities. The only thing that helps identify a particular religious institution is its name.
