The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Patriarch Filaret will not run for primate of Ukraine's local autocephalous Orthodox church, the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada speaker's spokesman Andriy Kovaliov has said.

"According to the information I have at my disposal, he [Filaret] will not run for primate… A bishop who will be elected at the assembly on December 15 is most likely to be unknown to the public, Ukrainian society. However, in my opinion, it will be a member of the Kyiv Patriarchate because Kyiv Patriarchate bishops will be in a majority there," Kovaliov told Hromadske TV when asked who may become the head of the local autocephalous church in Ukraine.

He said 41 bishops of the Kyiv Patriarchate have a chance to be elected to this post.

Kovaliov used to work in the Kyiv Patriarchate's information department.

The Unification Assembly to create the local Orthodox Church in Ukraine is scheduled for December 15 to be held at St Sophia's Cathedral in Kyiv. The primate of the new Church and its statutes are to be approved by the assembly.

Patriarch Filaret on November 19 said he will give his reply to a suggestion by the bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate to run for primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Unification Assembly itself.