"I call on everyone to protect Ukraine from Russian aggression. I call on you to fight for Ukrainian statehood, to support the armed forces … Together we can stand. With God's help, we will win this fight," Metropolitan Epiphanius, the leader of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), said in a statement posted on the church's website Tuesday.
After the Soviet Union fell, Ukrainian Orthodoxy split between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church–Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which remains under the authority of the patriarch of Moscow, and factions that sought total independence, which they achieved in 2019 with the creation of the OCU. The Russian Orthodox Church, which had controlled the Ukrainian church since the 17th century, does not recognize the OCU's independence.
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