By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (07.07.2025) – Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree on the deprivation of citizenship of Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Onufriy, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
The SBU report says that citizenship has been terminated according to the materials of this special service. “The SBU established that Metropolitan Onufriy voluntarily received Russian citizenship in 2002 but did not report it to the relevant authorities of Ukraine. At the same time, after that, he continued to enjoy the status of a citizen of our state,” the press release says.
According to the SBU, Metropolitan Onufriy maintains contact with the Moscow Patriarchate and “consciously opposed the canonical independence of the Ukrainian church”. The special service blames the Russian Orthodox Church for supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in full communion with the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow (ROC) before Russia’s aggression war on Ukraine and Metropolitan Onufriy whose official title is “His Beatitude, Onufriy, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine” disagree with the SBU’s accusations used to justify the deprivation of his Ukrainian citizenship.
Metropolitan Onufriy’s life under the Soviet Union
Metropolitan Onufriy (secular name Orest Volodymyrovych Berezovsky) was born 5 November 1944 in Chernivtsi Oblast (Ukraine) as the son of a priest.
In 1961 he graduated from high school in Chernivtsi. From 1962 to 1964 he studied at the Chernivtsi technical school, after which he worked in construction organizations in that city. In 1966, he joined the technical faculty of the Chernivtsi University but during his third year of study, he abandoned his project because he wanted to study theology. As a Ukrainian, he tried to enter the Odessa Theological Seminary but he was refused for political reasons.
Then, he secretly went to Russia, in the city of Zagorsk, where the famous Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary were located. From 1970 to 1988, he was a member of the Brotherhood of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the largest monastery located in the Moscow Oblast, where he carried various obediences at the same time as his studies.
- On 18 March 1971, he was tonsured a monk with the name of Onufriy in honor of St. Onuphrius the Great.
- On 20 June 1971 he was ordained a hierodeacon and on 29 May 1972 ordained a hieromonk.
- In 1984, he was appointed rector of the Transfiguration Church of the Athos representative office in the village of Lukino (Peredelkino station, Moscow region).
- In June 1985, he became the dean of the Moscow Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
- On Christmas Day in 1986, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite,
- In 1988, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy as a candidate in theology.
- On 20 July 1988 he was appointed Father-Superior of the Pochayiv Lavra of the Holy Assumption in the Ternopil Oblast (Ukraine) where he served until November 1990.
- On 9 December 1990 he was consecrated Bishop of Chernivtsi and Bukovina at the St Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv which at that time was the mother church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church/ Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC) in full communion with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. Since December 2018, the jurisdiction of the Cathedral in Kyiv has been transferred to the newly created Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople.
- On 24 August 1991, Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union, following the adoption of the Act of Declaration of Independence by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. This declaration was later confirmed by a national referendum held on 1 December 1991, with an overwhelming majority of Ukrainians voting in favor of independence.
Metropolitan Onufriy’s life in the sovereign state of Ukraine until February 2022
- On 23 January 1992, one day after signing a request of the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II for the erection of an autocephalous Church in Ukraine, Onufriy was transferred by then Metropolitan Philaret (Denysenko) to the Ivano-Frankivsk diocese.
- On 7 April 1992 he was restored by the Diocese of Chernivtsi and served in this diocese for 23 years.
- On 28 July 1994 Onufriy was elevated to the rank of archbishop and appointed a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox church (UOC) who was affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
- On 22 November 2000 Onufriy was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan.
- On 13 August 2014 Onufriy was elected the new primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine of the Moscow Patriarchate, succeeding Metropolitan Volodymyr who had died in the previous month.
- In February-March 2014, Russia invaded Crimea. In April, the war in Donbas started.
Metropolitan Onufriy’s life since Russia’s agression war on Ukraine
In February 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with other local bishops, Onufriy offered the churches of his diocese as shelters from the bombings. He did not publicly condemn clergymen from his church taking sides or collaborating with Moscow Patriarchate. He did not dismiss them from the church nor took any sanction against them but for sure, his clergy is divided on the war issue as some priests are being prosecuted or have been sentenced to prison terms, including ‘in absentia.’ However, he banned from the church his clergymen who joined the “national” Orthodox Church (OCU) rejecting any relations with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow and joining the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In February 2023, the press service of the UOC Department for Social and Humanitarian Issues published a press release stressing that UOC priests were delivering humanitarian aid to Ukrainian military in war-affected areas in the Donbas.
According to an April 2023 investigation by Ukrainska Pravda, Onufriy obtained a Russian passport in 1998 and 2002.
He did not deny that but he claimed he then wanted hereby to make true his former dream of living out his last days in the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius in Russia. However, due to “the bad relations between Russia and Ukraine and especially Russia’s war against Ukraine,” his hope had been destroyed and he gave up his Russian citizenship, he said, while adding he spoke out against Russia’s war with Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression. He now declares that he considers himself a citizen of Ukraine only.
Concerning the heavily debated separation of the UOC from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Metropolitan Onufriy recalled in an address on 17 May 2025 that back on 27 May 2022, at the Council in Kyiv (Feofaniya), the UOC introduced changes to its Statute aiming at putting an end to their subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate.
“The Council introduced a number of fundamental changes to the Statute on Governance, which confirmed the complete canonical independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its disassociation from the Moscow Patriarchate,” read the Metropolitan’s statement.
He also emphasized that the UOC independently manages all aspects of its internal and external life, including the appointment of bishops, the establishment of dioceses, and the production of holy myrrh.
He asserted that since 27 May 2022, his Church has not been part any more of the Moscow Patriarchate and he hoped that “the whole family of Autocephalous Local Churches” will acknowledge their “canonical independence.” In addition, he announced that he terminated his membership in the ROC Synod.
The question of independence from Moscow however remains a political issue in Ukraine. As recently reported by the DESS (State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience), an investigation is still underway to determine whether the UOC is still affiliated, or not, with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The passport issue might be interpreted by the authorities as a negative element in the public and political debate which is likely to lead to the liquidation of the UOC.
According to the last June survey of the company “Sotsis”, Onufriy among other church leaders was trusted by about 22% of Ukrainians, while the primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany, was trusted by 41%.
According to the same study, 35% of Ukrainians are in favor of the liquidation of the UOC, 10% – for its unification with the OCU, and 30% believe that this church should be left alone.
Published by Human Rights Without Frontiers
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