The OCU welcomes what was proclaimed in the decision of the Council of the UOC of May 27 on the upcoming dialogue. But the UOC “delivered ultimatums to the OCU, which it will never agree to, because it is the recognized local Orthodox Church of Ukraine.” The head of the OCU, Epiphany Dumenko, said this in an interview with NV.

“We called for dialogue, but on the condition that they would not issue ultimatums, because the dialogue itself suggests that you need to start from scratch. On their part, there are people who want this dialogue. There are bishops, there are clergy with whom we maintain contact, and I believe that in the future this will grow into something more. We will be able to start a dialogue, especially when Moscow starts putting even more pressure on them. We already see blackmail from the Russian Orthodox Church when they took the Crimean dioceses from the UOC, creating a Crimean metropolis there, headed by Metropolitan Lazar, and he is still a member of the Holy Synod of the UOC-MP. This is a clear sign to the UOC that they should not be removed. If they are removed, then the Donetsk and Luhansk dioceses, as well as the dioceses of the recently occupied territories, will be annexed,” he said.