Metropolitan Alexander (Ukrainian: Митрополит Олександр, secular name Oleksandr Mykolayovych Drabynko, Ukrainian: Олександр Миколайович Драбинко; born 18 March 1977) is a metropolitan bishop of Pereyaslav and Vyshneve of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. For a long time Oleksandr Drabynko was a personal secretary of Volodymyr Sabodan.[1] According to Metropolitan Jonathan Yeletskykh, “being the personal secretary of His Beatitude Volodymyr, he practically ruled the entire UOC and even shaped the course of the UOC. And especially in the last three years of the life of the seriously ill Primate of the UOC".[2]
He was born on 18 March 1977 in Korets, Rivne Oblast, in family of government officials.[1]
He graduated the Moscow Theological Seminary and later the Kyiv Theological Academy in 2002 becoming a candidate of theology for his dissertation "Eastern Orthodoxy in post-totalitarian Ukraine (milestones of history)" (see "Works section").
In 2003 – 2005 Drabynko was a coauthor and anchorman of the television program "Pravoslavnyi Mir" (Russian: «Православний Міръ», the Orthodox World) which was ordered by the Main Editorial Office of the information programs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
In his ordination as a bishop of Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi and Vyshneve (vicarate of the Diocese of Kyiv) that was led by the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) Volodymyr Sabodan participated 45 bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.