The head of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, signed draft law No. 8371 on banning the activities of religious organizations connected to Russia on the territory of Ukraine.
This is stated in the card of the draft law.
Now the document will be handed over to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, for signature. This does not mean that he will sign it immediately — for example, the law on lowering the conscription age to 25 years lay without signature for 10 months.
The law should make impossible the activity of churches that are governed by the state that carries out aggression against Ukraine, i.e. Russia.
Religious organizations suspected of cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church will be checked by the relevant expert commission. It should be created by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS). If the commission records a violation, the DESS will issue an order to the church to correct the situation.
After that, a trial must be held to decide whether to ban the religious organization. At the same time, the religious organization does not mean the entire UOC MP, but individual legal entities that represent it. This means that each parish or diocese will be banned separately.
The law enters into force 30 days after its publication. At the same time , the UOC-MP communities will have 9 months to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Prohibition of the UOC-MP in Ukraine
On January 19, 2023 , the government submitted to the Council a draft law banning churches affiliated with Russia in Ukraine. This was done on the instructions of the National Security and Defense Council. On October 19, 2023 , the parliament supported this draft law in the first reading.
On July 23, 2024, a number of peopleʼs deputies blocked the rostrum of the Rada due to the refusal to put the project to a vote. However, the voting did not take place then. The Speaker of the Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, said that the deputies decided to concentrate on finalizing certain provisions of the law so that it could be put to a vote as soon as possible.
On August 15, Zelenskyy called on the Verkhovna Rada to act quickly in the decision on "religious independence." And the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphany called on the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Onufriy to dialogue about unity.
Already on August 20 , the Rada supported the draft law on banning the UOC-MP.