Religion in Ukraine
As of 2018, according to a survey held by the Razumkov Center, 71.7% of the total respondents declared to be believers, while 11.5% were uncertain whether they believed or not, 5.3% were uninterested in beliefs, 4.7% were unbelievers, 3.0% were atheists, and a further 3.7% found it difficult to answer the question. A 2018 survey conducted by the Razumkov Centre found that 71.7% of the population declared themselves believers. About 67.3% of the population declared adherence to one or another strand of Orthodox Christianity (28.7% of the Kiev Patriarchate, 23.4% just Orthodox, 12.8% of the Moscow Patriarchate, 0.3% Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and 1.9% other types of Orthodoxy), 7.7% just Christians, 9.4% Greek Rite Catholics, 2.2% Protestants and 0.8% Latin Rite Catholics. Judaism was the religion of the 0.4%; while Buddhism, Paganism and Hinduism were each the religions of 0.1% of the population. A further 11.0% declared themselves non-religious or unaffiliated.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC; ; ), commonly referred to as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP, ) is a member of the Eastern Orthodox communion. It is one of two major Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical bodies in modern Ukraine. It is a constituent part of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC); however, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the senior-most of all the Orthodox Churches and the mother church for the historical Russian Church, disputes the legality of the ROC's ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Ukraine, which in the modern era dates back to 1686. The current statutes of the ROC define it as a "self-governing [church] with the rights of wide autonomy". the status of the UOC-MP within the Moscow Patriarchate meant that it enjoyed full administrative independence from the ROC's Holy Synod, whereas the Primate of the UOC-MP was the most senior permanent member of the ROC's Holy Synod and thus had a say in its decision-making in respect of the rest of the ROC, including its administration in the Russian Federation.