KYIV – Ukraine received more encouraging signs that it could receive canonical permission to form a unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church following an assembly of more than 100 metropolitans and archbishops at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul that took place on September 1-3. 

The move would further erode Moscow’s influence in Ukraine as the two predominantly Orthodox countries continue fighting a multi-front war on the battlefield, in cyberspace, diplomatically and on energy issues.