Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew personally denied the possibility of granting the status of the exarchate of Constantinople to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which operates in Ukraine under the brand of the UOC-MP.
This was stated by the Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Yevstratiy (Zorya) in a commentary to Glavkom.
According to him, Bartholomew denied the consideration of such plans during a meeting with Metropolitan Epifaniy of the OCU at the Phanar residence. Zorya was also present at these talks.
“At the meeting in Constantinople, we touched upon this issue as rumors began to spread in the press,” says Yevstratiy (Zorya). "The patriarch was clear, direct and unequivocal: this is ’fake news'. That's the English expression he used. He treated it all as nonsense.”
Earlier, in his, comment to Glavkom, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Mykyta Poturaiev, said that by talking about the UOC-MP going “under the wing of Constantinople”, adherents of the Russian Church in Ukraine tried to disrupt the adoption of Bill No. 8371 on the prohibition of religious organizations with a center in the aggressor state. It was voted on August 20 after more than a year and a half of discussions.
In particular, it is known that the possibility of granting the UOC-MP the status of the exarchate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was raised at the Conciliation Board by the head of the Servant of the People faction, Davyd Arakhamia.