In April 2025, Russian-language Telegram channels disseminated a sharp statement allegedly made by Epiphanius, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. We have verified the authenticity of this quote.
It is reported that the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kiev, commenting on the death of the pontiff, instead of the traditional kind words about the deceased and condolences in such a situation, said: “Pope Francis refused to condemn Russian aggression. His death on the day after Easter is obviously a sign from above.”
The scandalous statement was disseminated, for example, by the Telegram channels “Ostashko! Important" (two publications received 97,000 And 96,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Maisto (55,000), Lomovka (47,000) and Nina Vatt (28,000).
April 21, 2025 at age 88 passed away Pope Francis. The heads expressed their condolences many states and international organizations. Did this is also the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, who later visited funeral of the pontiff. “He prayed for peace in Ukraine and for Ukrainians,” the politician wrote on the social network X. Indeed, from the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, Francis tried to show his support for the civilian population of Ukraine. Like a pontiff told in an interview, on the very first day he called Zelensky, then repeatedly signaled to Russian President Vladimir Putin about his readiness to meet in order to achieve peace and compared what was happening in Ukraine with genocide in Rwanda. Francis openly applied to the Kremlin with a call to “stop the spiral of violence and death.” The Pope also talked about his Zoom conversation with Patriarch Kirill, who “for the first 20 minutes read from paper all the reasons justifying the Russian invasion,” in connection with which the primate of the Catholic Church in absentia called him Putin’s altar boy.
Nevertheless, in Ukraine, some of Francis’s statements aroused criticism: they were considered biased and even biased. In 2022 he called for don't think of war as a cowboy movie where there are good guys and bad guys. In 2023, outrage was provoked by the pontiff’s phrase about the heirs of great Russia, the saints, the rulers of great Russia Peter I and Catherine I, which he said during a video conference meeting with Catholic youth in St. Petersburg. In 2024, speaking about the position of the Ukrainian leadership in a difficult situation at the front, Francis stated: “He who sees the situation, who thinks about people, who has the courage to raise the white flag to negotiate, is the stronger one.”
All this could form a disrespectful attitude towards the deceased pope on the part of some Ukrainians. So, following the news of his death, Ukrainian stand-up comedian Anton Timoshenko wrote on social network X: “The Pope was killed by a severe respiratory infection, but let’s first listen to the infection’s position.” A screenshot of this publication along with snide comments under it is active spread by pro-Russian bloggers along with a quote attributed to Metropolitan Epiphanius.
However, let's see what Epiphanius himself said. Here's what his post said: Facebook, which appeared shortly after the news of the death of the Pope: “I received today’s news of the passing of Pope Francis with heartfelt sadness. As the head of the Roman Catholic Church, he devoted his life to serving God, spreading the Christian faith, and introduced many humanitarian initiatives to help those in need. During our personal meetings, Pope Francis expressed sincere concern about the fate of Ukrainians suffering from Russian aggression. His efforts and personal assistance in matters of the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war, as well as the return to Ukraine of children deported by the Russian authorities, are extremely important to us. The late pontiff sought, in accordance with his convictions, to help Ukrainians achieve peace and always called for prayer for this. Yesterday, in his Easter message, the Pope again mentioned war-torn Ukraine, expressing hope for the establishment, by the will of God, of a just and sustainable peace in our country.”
As we can see, this statement is full of respect and sympathy for the late pontiff. It does not correlate in any way with the words that were attributed to Epiphanius in Telegram channels.
“Verified” found no traces of the viral phrase on the official resources of the OCU and on the metropolitan’s blog, as well as no signs of its spread in the Ukrainian media. The statement was published almost exclusively by pro-Russian Telegram channels, the first of which was Nina Vatt April 21 at 13:20 Moscow time, approximately 20 minutes before the original statement of Epiphanius, which we quoted above. This channel is far Not first once mentioned in “Verified” analyzes as the primary source of disinformation about Ukraine.
Thus, the viral quote from Ukrainian Metropolitan Epiphanius is fake. It is being spread to discredit the OCU and Ukrainians in general.
Cover photo: social networks
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