The Ukrainian leader promised "to respect those who decide, for one reason or another," to remain with the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church — and also promised to protect those who choose to leave the Moscow Patriarchate and join the new church. Before Sunday's council in Kiev, there were three Orthodox Church branches in Ukraine:

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate)

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)

The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Now, priests from the Kiev Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Church become members of the new church - the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Image copyright EPA Image caption Many Ukrainians welcomed Constantinople's ruling earlier this year, holding a prayer in Kiev

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, marking a historic split from Russia. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Believers gathered outside the cathedral on Saturday

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Orthodox clergymen conducted prayers ahead of the church council

Ahead of the meeting, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called on religious and world leaders to protect believers and clergymen in Ukraine from what he called persecution. Ukraine's Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to form a new, independent Ukrainian church, and Ukrainian authorities have ramped up pressure on priests to support the move. "The deliberate instigation by the Russian special services of inter-church conflicts in Ukraine, to be combined with provoking direct acts of terrorism, may become a pretext for open military invasion by the Russian Federation's armed forces of our country," Vasyl Hrytsak, the chief of Ukraine's security service, said, according to Reuters.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko declares the establishment of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a new branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, separate from the Russian Orthodox Church, after Ukrainian clergy elected Metropolitan Epiphanius I as the head of the new church.