About 70 parishes of the former Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) have come under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Party’s faction, presidential representative to the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Lutsenko has said.

A statement published on her party's website says that she announced this at a meeting of the conciliation board of parliamentary factions and groups in Kyiv on Tuesday.

"The duty of Ukraine is [not only] to preserve interfaith peace, but also to provide for a transparent model of such swapping of parishes in our democratic society… The head of state notes the importance of the initiative by the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada to support and introduce a bill that will ensure the fundamental right of religious communities to change their subordination," Lutsenko said.

As reported earlier, on December 15, 2018, the Unification Assembly was held in Kyiv, during which the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was established to be headed by Metropolitan of Kyiv and All of Ukraine Epiphanius (born Dumenko). On January 5, 2019, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed the Tomos on the bestowal of the status of autocephaly for the PCU, and on January 6 handed the document to Metropolitan Epiphanius.

As of January 5, 2019, more than 40 parishes of the former UOC MP joined the OCU, and on January 13 their number reached 62.

According to UOC MP estimates, it had 11,393 parishes in Ukraine in late 2012.