kyiv votes to ban Russian-linked Orthodox Church

The new law still needs to be signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelensky before it can come into force.

The Ukrainian parliament adopted on Tuesday, August 20, a bill that would ban the Orthodox Church linked to the Moscow Patriarchate. The latter is described by several Ukrainian parliamentarians as a relay of influence for the Kremlin.

“Historic decision! Parliament voted on a bill that bans a branch of the aggressor country in Ukraine”MP Iryna Gerashchenko responded on Telegram. According to another MP, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, 265 MPs voted in favor of this document, the minimum required being 226. “There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine”added the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, on Telegram. According to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak, the new law, which still needs to be signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelensky before it comes into force, will give the parishes of the affected Church nine months to “cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church“, which supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Church Orthodox linked to the Moscow Patriarchate was once the most popular in Ukraine, a country with a large Orthodox majority. But in recent years it has lost many followers as Ukrainian national sentiment has gained popularity in the face of the former Russian power. This process was accelerated by the creation in 2018 of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent of Moscow, and even more so by the start in February 2022 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, openly supported by the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Orthodox Church targeted by this ban announced in May 2022 that it was breaking all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate and accused the Ukrainian authorities of persecution. But the Ukrainian government believes that it remains de facto dependent on Russia and several of its dignitaries are the target of criminal investigations. According to Ukrainian media, the Church linked tou Moscow Patriarchate; still has some 9,000 parishes in Ukraine compared to 8,000 to 9,000 parishes for its independent rival.

Unsurprisingly, Russia denounced an attempt by kyiv to “destroy canonical orthodoxy”The decision of the Parliament aims to “to destroy the canonical and true orthodoxy and to bring in its place a substitute, a false Church”raged Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday. “This is an illegal act which constitutes a flagrant violation of the fundamental notions of freedom of conscience and human rights.”commented, for his part, a spokesman for the Russian Patriarchate, Vladimir Legoïda,