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Epiphanius, Onuphrius or the Pope: which church leader do Ukrainians trust?

Epiphanius, Onuphrius or the Pope: which church leader do Ukrainians trust?

03 June 2026, 17:34

Epiphanius, Onuphrius or the Pope: which church leader do Ukrainians trust? — Churches of Ukraine

Most Ukrainians are not very familiar with the country’s religious leaders – but among those they do know, Metropolitan Epiphanius enjoys the highest level of trust. Kirill, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, has no trust at all in Ukraine.

This is according to the findings of a survey conducted by the Rating Group polling agency.

The results showed the following:

Metropolitan Epiphanius, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – average trust rating of 3.0 out of 4. 22% trust him completely, 25% tend to trust him.
Archbishop Sviatoslav, Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – also 3.0, but 62% do not know him at all.
Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – 2.8. The majority – 59% – do not know him either.
Leo XIV, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church – 2.6. Here, 41% trust him, but 27% do not.
Metropolitan Onufriy, Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – 2.3. 28% do not trust him, and a further 38% do not know him.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, received the lowest rating – 1.1 out of 4. 73% said they do not trust him at all.

“Regarding Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church – as you can see, there is a lack of trust. Therefore, there is no point in discussing the Russian Orthodox Church or Kirill in Ukraine,” said Oleksiy Antypovych, co-founder and CEO of Rating Group.

It is worth noting that a significant proportion of Ukrainians are generally unfamiliar with religious leaders. According to Oleksiy Antypovych, a fairly high proportion of respondents do not know them.

Metropolitan Epiphanius has the lowest level of “unfamiliarity”: only 35% said “I don’t know him”. For the rest, this figure is significantly higher – ranging from 38% to 62%.

As a reminder, we previously wrote about which holidays are the most popular among Ukrainians in 2026.

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