12 hierarchs of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate in 2018 signed an appeal to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew regarding autocephaly for the Ukrainian Church.
This was stated on the air of "UA:Pershy" by the fifth President Petro Poroshenko, Channel 5 reports.
"His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch is storing these signatures because they were sent independently. I think that someday it is possible that he will make them public. One of them has already died, and I can tell you his name – this is His Eminence Sofroniy, Metropolitan of Cherkasy. Two of the signatories joined the Church. I am very grateful that metropolitans Simeon and Oleksandr had the will to join and become the founders of the New Church," Poroshenko said.
Petro Poroshenko also reminded that thousands of believers in the Square in front of Hagia Sophia two years ago prayed, despite the cold, with the hope that the autocephalous Ukrainian Church would take place.
"I want to emphasize that God's help definitely played its role there. This was the position when Filaret made a very courageous decision. I am still grateful to him for that. A very courageous decision was made by individual hierarchs of Churches who said that they were working for the Unified Church. I want to take this opportunity to thank each of them," Poroshenko said.