In the 90s, the possibility of intervention in the Ukrainian church question was considered even without the condition of the appeal of believers. This is stated in the letter of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Canada Volodymyr Furkalo (from 24.01.1996 to 15.10.1998), which referred to the discussion of the church issue by the leaders of Ukrainian religious structures in the USA and Canada.

Copies of the letter were posted on Facebook by ex-Metropolitan of the UOC Alexander Drabynko.

“The Church leaders of the diaspora believe that the first active step of the Ukrainian government on the way to overcoming the schism in Orthodoxy in Ukraine should be an official letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew from President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma.

The latter, in April of this year, announced his readiness to help in obtaining the independence of the UOC even without appropriate petitions from the churches, but only to a personal appeal from the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, whose letter can radically change the religious situation in Ukraine in a positive direction…

It was suggested that the appeal of the highest official of Ukraine to the Constantinople throne is, in principle, possible without the preliminary unification of the three Orthodox churches of Ukraine… Such a letter would allow the Ecumenical Patriarch to establish contact with the leaders of the UOC, the UOC-KP and the UAOC, call them to unity from the name of the entire Orthodox world. In this context, the following options for the possible development of events are being considered: Constantinople is leading the case towards at least uniting the churches of Dymytriy and Philaret and granting autocephaly to this branch.

We were told confidentially that Bartholomew was very offended by Alexiy II for his position on Estonia,” the Ambassador’s letter says.