The Ukranian Church belongs to the russian one under Patriarch Kirill

The Patriarch of Alexandria, Theodore II, who participated in last week's Council of Crete, has said that "the Ukrainian Church belongs to the Russian one and the Patriarch of Moscow is the patriarch of it."

His Beatitude also mentioned Metropolitan Onuphfiy of Kiev, describing him as a "holy man" and added that "the Patriarchate of Alexandria is close to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church" under the guidance of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphfiy  .

Referring to the recent parliamentary petition to the Ecumenical Patriarch to recognize the Ukrainian Church as autocephalous, the Primate of the Church of Alexandria noted that such recognition should be a matter of the Church and not of politics.

Previously, a similar statement was made by Reverend Father Alexander Karloutsos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who contributed actively to the organization of the Council in Crete. The priest described as "very bold or rather too bold" the petition of Ukrainian parliamentarians, noting that "politicians have nothing to do with church recognition."

Concluding, the father made clear that there is no such issue: "As you know, the Ecumenical Patriarch recognizes only Patriarch Kirill as the spiritual head of all Russia and this of course means Ukraine as well”.