Over 1,300 Ukrainian Parishes Shift Allegiance Amidst War, New Data Shows

Religious Communities in Ukraine Change Affiliation

According to Главком: From 2022 through the first two months of 2026, a total of 1,387 religious communities in Ukraine left the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). This data was released by Viktor Voinarovych, First Deputy Head of Ukraine's State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. This shift reflects a broader movement within Ukrainian society to distance itself from Russian religious influence following the full-scale invasion.

At the start of 2025, the network of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate comprised 10,118 entities, including:

• 9,792 religious communities
• 210 monasteries
• 34 brotherhoods
• 17 missions
• 16 theological educational institutions

During the same period, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine counted 8,511 entities, among them:

• 8,291 religious communities
• 91 monasteries
• 14 brotherhoods
• 35 missions
• 26 theological educational institutions

The transition of parishes has varied by region and year. In the Kyiv region, 228 communities switched from the UOC-MP to the OCU during 2022-2023, with 78 more recorded in 2024-2025. Khmelnytskyi Oblast saw 127 communities change allegiance in 2022, 119 in 2023, 37 in 2024, and 12 in 2025. In the Bukovina region, 38 UOC-MP communities transitioned to the OCU between 2022 and 2025, with 7 of those occurring in 2024.

Several regions recorded no transitions of UOC-MP religious communities in 2025. These include:

• Donetsk
• Zaporizhzhia
• Ivano-Frankivsk
• Luhansk
• Lviv
• Mykolaiv
• Ternopil
• Kherson

The regions with the highest number of transitions overall were:

• Khmelnytskyi
• Kyiv
• Volyn
• Zhytomyr
• Vinnytsia

Chernivtsi and Chernihiv oblasts also demonstrated a positive dynamic in the number of transitions.

On March 20, 2023, His Holiness Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine passed away after a serious illness. The following day, seven hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate elected Archbishop Nikodym of Sumy as the new patriarch in an online vote. These religious changes continue against the backdrop of war and profound social transformation in the country.

The changing allegiance of religious communities in Ukraine points to deep social and political transformations occurring amidst military aggression and a growing national consciousness.

The process of communities switching churches carries not only religious but also cultural and political significance, as it reflects shifts in public identity and loyalty. The situation in the religious sphere remains a key aspect for understanding the broader context of change in Ukraine.

The recent transition of over 1,300 religious communities highlights a significant shift in Ukraine's spiritual landscape. This growing trend is underscored by recent actions, such as the transfer of St. Volodymyr's Cathedral to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, reflecting the broader desire among Ukrainians to strengthen their national identity in the face of ongoing conflict.