Epiphanius is a traitor in relation to the patriarch, we have no communication with him, and this should not be, because we are defending the independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said the head of the UOC-KP Filaret Denisenko in the program “Golovanov’s Time” on the “Ukraine 24” TV channel.

“What are the differences? The fact that in Ukraine one part of the Orthodox Church is subordinate to Moscow, and the second, the OCU, headed by Metropolitan Epiphanius, depends on the Patriarch of Constantinople, although it has a tomos of autocephaly.

But in this tomos, all that dependence is written on paper. Therefore, because of this, we have disagreements, to this day I do not recognize the tomos as other Orthodox Churches have. That is, Constantinople made us dependent on itself, and we want to be completely independent, like all Orthodox Churches.

I support a completely independent Church, not by name, because in the tomos about autocephaly they write about independence, but there are many points that make the Ukrainian Church dependent on the head of the Phanar,” Filaret said.