Patriarch Emeritus Filaret, one of the leaders of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, has passed away, Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the church, said.

Filaret Denysenko co-founded the unrecognized Kyiv Patriarchate in 1992 and was the patriarch of Ukraine from 1995 to 2018.

Filaret is one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, and his church activity spans several decades. For many years, Filaret headed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate and remained its key spiritual and administrative leader. It was his name that for a long time was associated with the struggle for a separate status of the Ukrainian church and its independence from Moscow.

After the Unification Council and the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the new church structure received a tomos of autocephaly from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. After that, Filaret received the title of Honorary Patriarch.