Pressures and difficulties

Alongside the legal efforts to obtain recognition of the organization, representatives and members of the communities supporting the establishment of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine have reported the existence of pressure and threats related to the exercise of their right to freely express their religious choice.

In the case of certain communities that have expressed their intention to restore communion with the Romanian Patriarchate, their representatives have reported that they were subjected to pressure and threats of military mobilization and deployment to the front if they continued their efforts to change their religious affiliation.

We consider it particularly serious that, in Ukraine, expressing a religious choice and participating in the peaceful and lawful efforts of a community should constitute grounds for intimidation, threats, or the exertion of pressure on believers and their representatives.

For our communities, religious freedom cannot be separated from the freedom to freely express their will and to make decisions concerning their own ecclesiastical organization, without fear of consequences or reprisals.

The current situation of Romanian believers in Ukraine appears, at the very least, peculiar: on the one hand, they are urged, and even pressured by the authorities, to leave the Moscow Patriarchate; on the other hand, when they do leave, they are threatened with mobilization to the front line, criminal investigations, dismissal from their employment, etc., with every means being used to seek to reaffiliate them with the newly established autocephalous Church (in 2019).

One case that we consider relevant in the context of these pressures is that of Mr. Eugen Pătraș, the authorized representative of the religious organization. On 2 September 2024, only five days after the application for the registration of “The Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine Religious Association (Administration)” was submitted, Mr. Eugen Pătraș was banned from entering the territory of Ukraine for a period of three years.

The ban on entering Ukraine directly affected his ability to participate personally in the institutional and administrative proceedings concerning the registration of the organization.

Since 3 July 2026, the leader of the Romanian Orthodox community in the Odesa region, Protopresbyter Mihail Stegărescu, has also been subject to efforts by the Ukrainian authorities to conscript him, despite being a religious leader, a local counsellor, and a person essential to the functioning of the Romanian Consulate in Odesa.

This measure demonstrates, in our view, the bad faith of the Ukrainian authorities and the explicit persecution of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. For several years, the authorities of the Odesa region have unjustifiably refused to register a third Romanian Orthodox parish in the Odesa region, in order to prevent the legal existence of three religious entities in the area that could seek regional recognition as a religious organization.

All these elements - the delay in deciding on the registration application, the successive changes in the grounds invoked by the authorities, pressure on certain communities wishing to express their religious choice, and the entry ban imposed on the organization’s representative - constitute abuses that the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine has reported in writing since the autumn of 2025 to European and international organizations specializing in the protection of human rights (the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and others). We await from these bodies a clear and unequivocal position on this matter.

We are not asking for privileges for Romanian communities, but for respect for their right to freely organize their religious life and preserve their spiritual, cultural, and linguistic identity.