By Efi Efthimiou
A big turmoil broke into the circles of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, after the revelation that Metropolitan Onufriy holds a Russian passport.
The revelation was made by the Ukrainian website Ukrainska Pravda, which even displays photographs of the passport depicting Metropolitan Onufriy.
According to the website, Russian passports were found in more than 20 priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including Metropolitan Onufriy.
As Ukrainska Pravda reveals, Bishop Yuri Haron is also a Russian citizen. According to the report, Haron traveled to Russia on January 8, 2022, one month before the invasion and on January 7, 2023, almost a year after the invasion.
Also, the information of Ukrainian journalists reports that former Metropolitan Oleg Ivanov has Russian citizenship and cooperated with the Russian forces at the invasion.
For its part, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate denies this information, with Metropolitan Onufriy himself stating that he is a citizen of Ukraine only.
He justifies the Russian passport as existing from the time he was studying in the theological schools of Russia, before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In his statement, he states that when the Soviet regime collapsed, “while being de facto a citizen of Russia (because I had a permanent residence registration in Russia, which, in modern terms, meant citizenship) before that, took a Ukrainian passport.
Meanwhile, my Russian citizenship automatically continued, but I had no interest in it and did not use it, it meant nothing then, and nobody persecuted for it. There were good fraternal relations between Ukraine and Russia.
When those relations started to deteriorate, especially in the last ten years, I left my Russian citizenship. I do not have a Russian passport. It was especially confirmed when I spoke against Russia’s war with Ukraine and condemned the Russian aggression. I consider myself to be a citizen only of Ukraine.”
He added that after the latest developments, “ I do not regard myself as a citizen of any country save for my native land – Ukraine. I do not know how politicians regard me, but I regard myself exactly as such. I do not have a Russian passport”.
