structural:expansion
2018

Since the Baptism of Rus' in 867 the Orthodox church in Ukraine was led by the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus' who was subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and was largely governed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth since the territory was conquered in the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, ending in 1392. Poland-Lithuania lost the territory to Russia as part of the peace deal of the Great Northern War in 1654. In 1686 Dionysius IV of Constantinople transferred the territory to the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'. In 1924, Orthodox churches in Ukraine besides the Metropolitan of Kyiv were placed under the jurisdiction of the Polish Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarch as an autonomous church, however, the Russian Church never agreed to nor recognised this transfer, mostly due to Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and most of the Russian Church's leaders being imprisoned by Soviet officials. The Soviet Union, initially, had a policy of repression against the Orthodox Church, regardless of its denomination. However, after the start of the Nazi Invasion of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin transformed the Russian Church into a propaganda tool to intensify patriotic support for the war effort. Following Soviet victory in the war, various autonomous and Independent Orthodox churches around eastern Europe were forcefully integrated or reintegrated into the Russian Church, including the church in Ukraine. Many of the church's leaders at this time were installed and closely monitored by the NKVD to ensure the church's support for the Soviet Union.

This situation led to the rise of rival, anti-Russian and anti-Soviet churches within Ukraine, including the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), founded in 1917 which declared itself the restored autonomous church that existed prior to 1686 but had been eradicated within Soviet Ukraine by the 1930s. The church was largely supported by Ukrainian émigrés and diaspora, and was restored as a legally recognised church by the Ukrainian government in 1991. In 1992, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) came into existence, being founded by members of the Russian Church defrocked for insubordination, alongside support with the Ukrainian émigré community. The church submitted a request for Ukrainian autocephaly at its founding synod in Kyiv in 1992. These churches were competing with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP), the Russian Church in Ukraine.

On 11 October 2018, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople revoked the Russian Church's letter of issue, allowing them to ordain the Metropolitan of Kyiv, re-established a stauropegion in Kyiv, and lifted the Russian Church's excommunication of members of the UAOC and the UOC-KP. In response, on 15 October, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church severed all ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and barred all members of the Russian Church from receiving communion or sacraments from any churches with ties to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On 15 December 2018, the UAOC and UOC-KP voted to merge in the Unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine, forming the restored Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with Epiphanius I of Ukraine, of the UOC-KP, becoming the first primate of the unified church. On 5 January 2019, Bartholomew I signed the official tomos that granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

In addition to severing ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Russian Church has also severed communion with Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens primate of the Church of Greece, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria, and Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus. In response to the severing of ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe (AROCWE), voted to dissolve itself, although the vote failed, it resulted in a split in AROCWE, with several churches leaving to form the "Vicariate of Russian Tradition of the Metropolis of France", while John (Renneteau), head of the AROCWE, personally joined the Russian Church. Additionally, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UOC-MP severed all ties with the Russian Church.