On the evening of August 24, 2021, His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and his entourage departed from Boryspil Airport for Istanbul (Constantinople).
The Patriarch was accompanied by Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine with hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, as well as officials.
"Thank you for everything and may God bless everyone!" the Patriarch said in his farewell word.
"May the Lord bless His All-Holiness and delegation for a happy journey. Thank you, Your All-Holiness, for the extraordinary days, emotions and events that your visit brought!", the message of the OCU reads.
"During his 4-day stay in Ukraine, Patriarch Bartholomew held 30 events-from personal meetings to a divine service of thousands in St Sophia. That is 7-8 events a day. Its level of performance is impressive. The patriarch flew away from Ukraine very inspired. The personal experience of communication and the things I saw and heard only confirmed that the decisions made were correct and persuasion or intimidation of Moscow will change nothing", the OCU spokesman Archbishop Yevstratiy (Zorya) commented on the visit.