On November 2, 2024, the Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations, V.R. Legoyda, made a comment to journalists in connection with the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to retire Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol:
"On October 31, 2024, a statement was published on social networks and on some private Internet resources on behalf of a number of bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in connection with the decision of the Holy Synod to retire Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol.
The aforementioned statement calls into question the legality of this decision and demands its cancellation.
In this regard, I explain that decisions on the procedure for the administration of dioceses in the territories of Donbass and Novorossiya are made by the Clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in special conditions of military operations, when the course of church life urgently requires such decisions.
The outstanding achievements of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion in organizing the life of the Church in the Donetsk land, in building many churches, educating and ordaining numerous clergy are beyond doubt and are duly noted in the synodal resolution. However, the current situation in the region, where there is fighting and people are dying every day, dictates the need for change.
The precedent for resolving such situations is Decree No. 362 of November 7/20, 1920 of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, the Holy Synod and the Supreme Church Council.
The entire Russian Orthodox Church prays for the deliverance of the bishops, clerics, monastics and laity of Ukraine from evil persecution, expressed in the arrest and unjust trials of clergy and laity faithful to Orthodoxy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in physical aggression and false propaganda against them, in the forcible seizure of monasteries and temples."