The head of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of the Kiev Patriarchate, Filaret (Denisenko), has died at the age of 97, said the leader of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Epiphanius (Dumenko).
On March 9, the non-canonical Kiev Patriarchate announced Filaret's hospitalization due to his deteriorating health.
In 1966, he became the exarch of the UOC, that is, the second largest bishop in the flock after the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. And in the late 80s, he was one of the most obvious successors of the then Patriarch Pimen. And the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne after his death.

But the Local Council of 1990, contrary to all expectations, elected Metropolitan Alexy (Ridiger) as the primate of the Russian Church, not him.

Disappointed with the election results, Denisenko staged a demarche, demanding autocephaly for the Ukrainian Church. In response, they worked out a compromise option: the UOC is granted unprecedented administrative and financial freedom. At the same time, its primate remains a member of the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Synod, which means he can influence its fate.

At the Council of Bishops in 1992, Filaret agreed with the status of the Ukrainian Church he heads and vowed to prevent a split. However, after returning from Moscow to Kiev, he began to deny everything. As a result, the Ukrainian bishops removed him from the administration of the UOC. And then he created the "Kiev Patriarchate", for which the Ukrainian nationalists, with the support of the authorities, began to take away the temples of the canonical Church.

In 1997, at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, Filaret was anathematized, that is, he was completely expelled from the Church.
Filaret's attempt at repentance was described in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta by Patriarch Kirill's adviser, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov: "In the fall of 2017, he sent a letter to Patriarch Kirill, and in it there was a request that the Bishops' Council of the Russian Church, which took place in November 2017, consider this letter. This letter was read out there. The Council regarded it as a step towards overcoming the schism, welcomed this intention and established a commission for further dialogue.
But literally the next day Filaret gave a press conference in Kiev, at which he disavowed the contents of his letter, and said that he was not going to repent of any schism, and there was nothing to talk about at all. What it was is hard to say now. But there was definitely a letter, it was real, and Filaret's signature was genuine..."

Based on materials from RIA Novosti and Rossiyskaya Gazeta