Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has given the tomos on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine to Metropolitan Yepifaniy, the head of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine, in Istanbul.

The ceremony was aired on Ukrainian television.

The ceremony is attended by a Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

"The autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has been proclaimed. The tomos has been given!" Metropolitan Oleksandr Drabynko, who has gone from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and who is attending the ceremony in Istanbul, said.