Overview
- Metropolitan Epiphanius and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine announced Filaret’s death on March 20, noting he was 97 and had been hospitalized on March 9 as the church cited an exacerbation of chronic diseases.
- Filaret led the Ukrainian church under Moscow’s authority for decades before breaking away in 1992 to help found the Kyiv Patriarchate.
- In 2018 his branch joined another dissident group to form the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as Moscow severed ties in protest.
- He later clashed with Metropolitan Epiphanius over leadership and sought to revive the Kyiv Patriarchate, though the two met in November 2025 in a public show of reconciliation.
- Public identification with the independent church has surged, with 56% of Ukrainians aligning with the OCU in 2024 versus 34% in 2020, while support for the Moscow-linked church fell to 6% from 15%.