Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has assured that the Church of Constantinople will always support the newly created Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

"Today, with God's help, we are restoring millions of believers of your land in church unity, who suddenly and not by their own will and reason were out of canonicity and unity... the Church of Constantinople returned them not as a stepmother, but as a mother," he said on Saturday in Istanbul after the ceremony of signing the tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The patriarch said that the Church of Constantinople has a long way and on this road it never showed itself to be a stepmother towards anyone and always generously gave everything to the last.

According to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Church of Constantinople will always support Ukraine. "The Church of Constantinople will always stand by your side... praying and working for your good," he said.

Patriarch Bartholomew expressed the hope that the newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine would be sustainable.

According to the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epiphanius (Epifaniy), the path to signing the tomos was difficult. "The road to today's blessed day was difficult. The way of truth was really difficult and sorrowful," he said.