Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law banning the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), according to a listing in Ukraine’s legislative database.
The highly controversial ban was justified on the basis of the church’s – also known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate – support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It affects some 3 million members.
The church condemned the invasion and broke with the Russian patriarchate in 2022. However, Zelensky’s government accuses it of justifying Russian crimes against its own people and spreading Russian propaganda.
Many clerics are suspected of spying for Russia or observing Russian artillery attacks.
The head of the much larger Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU), Metropolitan Epiphanius I, has called on OUC members to come to his branch.
Moscow continues to believe that Ukraine remains part of Russia in terms of religion. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova said when the ban was passed by the Ukrainian parliament: “The aim is to destroy the deeply canonical true Orthodoxy.”
Moscow also accused Ukraine of violating its citizens’ right to freedom of religion.
