In the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP), more and more supporters of autocephaly are becoming increasingly involved, since they do not want to be part of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

This is written by journalist Vitaly Portnikov in an article for "Radyo Liberty".

"The time itself works for the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP, - Ed.. Sooner or later, the ROC in Ukraine may face a situation in which the Serbian Orthodox Church found itself on the territory of Macedonia. In this country there is the unrecognized Macedonian Orthodox Church, but the canonical Serbian church in Macedonia simply does not exist. By the way, it was in Macedonia that the ROC recently suffered a serious defeat: its mediation in the negotiations of the Serbian and Macedonian churches resulted in the fact that the Macedonian church appealed to another Orthodox church - the Bulgarian Church - to recognize itself as a mother church and grant autocephaly. For Patriarch Kirill this is an unpleasant signal, "stressed Portnikov.

In his opinion, the longer the ROC will refuse to grant autocephaly to the UOC, the more the territory of "Moscow Orthodoxy" in Ukraine will shrink.

"And when the UOC-KP unites church parishes in most parts of the country and displaces the ROC and its branch of the UOC-MP from Ukrainian religious life, it will be able to turn to the Orthodox Church of Constantinople with a request to recognize itself as a church-mother and grant autocephaly. This will be the end of the Ukrainian split - sooner or later Moscow will have to agree with it, "- writes Vitaly Portnikov.