Held amidst a climate of repression by the Soviet government, the synod was rejected by the majority of the church's adherents, leading them to continue their practices underground until their activity was again legalised under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of Glasnost.

The Soviet government had begun plans to forcibly dismantle the UGCC following their invasion of eastern Poland (present-day western Ukraine), although they were put on hold due to, among other reasons, Operation Barbarossa.

As a result of the synod, the UGCC became the largest illegal religious organisation in the world, and followers were subject to persecution for over forty years until they were permitted to practice their faith in 1989, after a long-running campaign by Ukrainian Soviet dissidents.

The written report said, in part, "The Greek Catholic Uniate Church, in the form that it exists in at the present time, is an entirely foreign to us in influence, as a legal residence of the Vatican, and in its active participation in Ukrainian nationalist organisations on our territory.

"[7] Beginning in the spring of 1945 a series of articles and pamphlets by writer Yaroslav Halan accused the church of collective responsibility for subversion against the Soviet government.

[6] The arrests resulted in a dramatic decline in the activity of the UGCC: the Greek Catholic Theological Academy was closed, as were several seminaries and deacons' schools.

The Sponsoring Group had three members: Havriyl Kostelnyk [uk], the chairman, was based in Lviv and had an established reputation within the UGCC as a critic of the Holy See.

[6] On the day of their establishment, they submitted a petition to the government of the Ukrainian SSR requesting that they be permitted to start the process of integration with the Russian Orthodox Church.

[8] The arguments of the Sponsoring Group in favour of unifying the churches was based largely on pragmatism, and they felt that it was necessary to accept political realities in order to move forward.

Priests who were not already swayed by the Sponsoring Group's reasoning were subject to a campaign of death threats, internal exile, or Gulag sentences from the government.

[8] As the Soviet government sought to present an image of adequately representing western Ukraine, it was determined that there should be 216 individuals in attendance, equal to two people per deanery.

[7] Several candidates proposed by the Sponsoring Group failed to pass loyalty tests,[8] and all those present, including the NKGB agents, had corresponding reference documents with which to determine their attitude towards the unification of the churches.

[6] The first speaker was father Vasyl Lesiuk, who unexpectedly expressed his support for subsequent meetings between attendants and parishioners with which to gauge the best choice for the future of the UGCC.

Kostelnyk was shot to death while leaving the Church of Transfiguration in Lviv in 1948, in what was officially blamed on the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, although debates continue as to the possible involvement of the NKGB.

The Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR issued a statement on 28 November 1989, ahead of a meeting between Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II, stating that members of the UGCC were to be granted equal rights to practice their religion openly.