Berezovsky was born 5 November 1944 in
Chernivtsi Oblast as the son of a priest. In 1961 he graduated from high school. From 1962 to 1964 he studied at the Chernivtsi technical school, after which he worked in construction organizations in
Chernivtsi. In addition to his native
Ukrainian, he also speaks
Russian and
Romanian. In 1966, he joined the technical faculty of the
Chernivtsi University, in late 1969, during his third year of study, he abandoned this path and entered the
Moscow Theological Seminary in the second and last class of that year; the following year, he became part of the brotherhood of the
Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. On 18 March 1971 he was tonsured a monk with the name Onufriy, in honor of St.
Onuphrius the Great. On 20 June 1971 he was ordained a
hierodeacon and on 29 May 1972 ordained a
hieromonk. After 18 years, Archimandrite Onufriy went back to Ukraine as the superior of the
Pochayiv Lavra of the
Holy Assumption. In 1988, he graduated from the
Moscow Theological Academy as a candidate in theology. ,
Kyiv, Shevchenko park, 9 March 2014 On 20 July 1988 he was appointed Father-Superior of the
Dormition Pochayiv Lavra. On 9 December 1990 he was consecrated Bishop of Chernivtsi and
Bukovina by Metropolitan
Filaret (Denysenko) at the
St Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv. On 22 January 1992, Onufriy signed a request of the bishops of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church to
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II for the erection of an
autocephalous Church in Ukraine, and on January 23 Onufriy was transferred by Metropolitan
Philaret (Denysenko) to the Ivano-Frankivsk diocese. On 7 April 1992 he was restored by the Diocese of Chernivtsi, and served in this diocese for 23 years. On 28 July 1994 Onufriy was elevated to the rank of
archbishop On 23 November 2013 Onufriy was awarded by
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Vladimir the right to wear the second
Panagia. On 24 February 2014 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church elected Onufriy by secret ballot as
locum tenens of the Kyiv metropolitan see, following the issuing of a medical certificate concerning the incapacity of
Volodymyr, the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, to perform the duties of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Volodymyr died on 5 July 2014. On 13 August 2014 Onufriy was elected the new
primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine of the Moscow Patriarchate (succeeding
Metropolitan Volodymyr). Onufriy did not publicly condemn collaborating clergymen from his church, and they were not dismissed from the church. He did ban from the church clergymen that transferred themselves to the
Orthodox Church of Ukraine. According to an April 2023 investigation by
Ukrainska Pravda Onufriy obtained a
Russian passport in 1998 and 2002. Onufriy did not deny he used to have
Russian citizenship, but claimed he had obtained this to make true his former dream of living out his last days in the
Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius but that "the bad
relations between Russia and Ukraine, the collapse of the
CIS, and especially Russia's war against Ukraine" had destroyed this hope. By a decree of
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dated 2 July 2025 Onufriy's
Ukrainian citizenship was terminated. According to
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) he had voluntarily received Russian citizenship in 2002 and had not informed the Ukrainian authorities about this. The SBU also accused Onufriy of maintaining ties with the
Russian Orthodox Church, "whose representatives openly support Russian aggression against Ukraine", and had deliberately opposed obtaining canonical independence from this church. The SBU also concluded that, "despite the full-scale invasion of Russia", Onufriy continued to support the policy of the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership, in particular
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. ==Views==