Archimandrite Kirill Hovorun, a cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church, said in an interview on the YouTube channel DetectorUA that most Orthodox Churches, in particular the Georgian one, are waiting for the right moment to recognize the OCU.

“They have the same experience as we do, the experience of the occupation of 20% of Georgia by Russia. They perceive Russia as an aggressor country. And they, of course, also understand that the Church, unfortunately, has become an instrument of this aggression. In addition, they understand this better than any other Church, any other people or our neighbor why it was necessary to create a local Church of Ukraine. The reasons why the Georgian episcopate has not yet decided on recognition are the same as in most churches, they do not want an escalation of tension within the Orthodox world now,” Hovorun assures the public.

As for the rest of the Churches that did not support the expansion of the Phanar in Ukraine, they, says Hovorun, are just “waiting only for an opportunity, waiting for the tension to subside, because the Churches do not want the confrontation between Moscow and Constantinople to continue… therefore they don’t in a hurry.

The churches still do not have a consensus. In every Church there is a Synod, in the Synods there are members who support independence, and there are those who are against. I will say that the number of members in the Synods has increased who support the recognition of the OCU and are just waiting for the time when it will be convenient to do it,” the archimandrite explained.