Russian Orthodox Church still believes that the communities of the Moscow Patriarchate do not join the OCU

In particular, this was stated in an interview with Izvestia by the chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations Vladimir Legoyda, according to Religiyna Pravda.

"Almost everyone remains in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP – Ed.). But the situation is still alarming, primarily from the point of view of the actions of nationalists and periodic indulgences by the authorities at various levels,” Legoyda said.

The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church also says that “the forecasts made by the political forces of Ukraine and Constantinople: as soon as a new church is created, bishops and laity will quickly move to it from the UOC-MP did not come true.”

"Almost all 12.5 thousand churches remained in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP – Ed.), the Primate of which is His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy. Less than 1% of churches have left the church since then, and most of these situations are associated with pressure on people, with violation of the law for the connivance of local authorities,” he said.

Legoyda said that "the canonical Church is still under pressure."

As reported, the Head of the OCU Epifaniy stated that in two years, about 700 parishes have joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

For only six months of the OCU's existence, it was joined by 500 communities of the Moscow Patriarchate.

In 2019, the users most often referred to the article of the Ukrainian Wikipedia" transition of church communities to the OCU " – it has gained more than a million views.