The Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate has approved instructions for admitting individuals “from Ukrainian schismatic structures” into the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The document primarily concerns dioceses in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

According to the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church, on 22 October 2026, members of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved a document entitled “Instructions for the Reception of Persons from Ukrainian Schismatic Structures Wishing to Join the Russian Orthodox Church” as guidance for diocesan clergy.

The Synod’s instructions set out talking points “for dialogue with a person coming from schism”. In particular, ROC priests are required to explain that “the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) were projects founded on the personal ambitions of certain individuals”, that “the 2018 Tomos was a unilateral political act not recognised by the majority of Local Orthodox Churches”, and that “the legitimisation of schismatics through this act did not restore apostolic succession, but merely entrenched the schism”.

Clergy are also instructed to present the following argument: “Since you are on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, you can enjoy full ecclesiastical communion only by remaining in unity with it.”

The document emphasises that individuals baptised in “schismatic structures” must be baptised in the Russian Orthodox Church, while clergy from those structures are to be received into the Moscow Patriarchate as laypeople.

As LF previously reported, religious persecution in the occupied territories of Ukraine forms part of Russia’s systematic and sustained campaign of repression. This is documented in a report by the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), entitled “Who Is Your God? Religious Terror in the Temporarily Occupied Territories”.

For more on how the occupation authorities persecute believers, read our article “Christians Under Occupation: How Russia Is Destroying Religious Freedom in Ukraine”.