President signs law banning churches linked to Russia

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a law banning the activities of religious organizations associated with Russia in Ukraine.

This was reported on the Parliament's website.

The law was also published in the government newspaper Holos. The law comes into force 30 days after its publication. But except for one clause - according to it, the UOC (MP) communities will have 9 months to break ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

On August 20, the relevant law was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The day before, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) supported the parliamentary initiative to ban the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.

On October 19, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading Bill No. 8371 on the ban on religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. In particular, it was a ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

Meanwhile, as of the end of December of the same year, Odesa region, according to analysts of the Opendatabot platform, ranked seventh in Ukraine and first among the southern regions of the country in terms of the number of operating churches of the branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, better known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). At that time, there were 415 churches of the UOC (MP) in Odesa region, compared to 291 in Kherson region and 193 in Mykolaiv region.

In December 2022, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized as compliant with the Constitution the law of Ukraine that provides for the change of name of religious organizations or associations that are part of the structure of a religious organization whose governing center is located outside Ukraine in a state that is recognized by law as having committed military aggression against Ukraine and temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine. In other words, the church that currently calls itself the "Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)" had to officially change its name to the "Russian Orthodox Church." But this church decided to simply not mention the Moscow Patriarchate in its name.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the relevant changes on December 20, 2018, but a group of MPs from the then Opposition Bloc, including former MP Serhiy Kivalov and current MPs Mykola Skoryk and Anton Kisse, decided to challenge the law in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

Кирило Бойко