Moscow itself refused to consider the issue of autocephaly at the Pan-Orthodox Council; it insisted that this issue be removed from the agenda. Speaker of the OCU Yevstratiy Zorya said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

“Moscow thwarted the opportunity to consider this issue during the Pan-Orthodox Council; it tried to disrupt the Pan-Orthodox Council itself. And now to appeal to the Pan-Orthodox discussion, to the Pan-Orthodox clarification of this issue is hypocrisy,” says Zorya.

“Moscow has offered at least some constructive thought, a constructive plan that would take into account that there is a Tomos and it has not been canceled? No, she didn’t offer anything. What they want? They want to debate the Tomos. And what does it mean to discuss the Tomos, to question the Tomos? This also calls into question the procedure for acquiring recognized autocephaly, the procedure for the pan-Orthodox proclamation of autocephaly for all local churches, which became autocephalous after the era of the Ecumenical Councils. And there are ten such churches now,” he says.