The Committee of the Verkhovna Rada supported the draft law on the banning of the UOC MP

Author:
Oleg Panfilovych
Date:

The Committee of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) on humanitarian and information policy recommended the adoption of a draft law prohibiting the activity of religious organizations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine.

The MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported this.

"The Moscow Patriarchate will finally be banned in Ukraine! 🚫⛪️ The Humanitarian Policy Committee at its meeting has just recommended the relevant bill," the MP noted.

The MP Mykola Knyazhytskyi explained that the committee supported three draft laws — on banning the Russian Orthodox Church and its subordinate structures; the request of the Verkhovna Rada to the Cabinet of Ministers to transfer the Pochaiv Assumption Lavra and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) for free use; simplifying the transition from the UOC MP to the OCU.

  • On December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law banning the activities of religious organizations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine.
  • At the end of November, the SSU conducted a series of searches in churches, monasteries and laurels of the UOC MP, in particular in Kyiv-Pecherska. After the presidentʼs statement, law enforcement officers began actively conducting a series of searches across the country. Servants of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate are being checked for pro-Russian activities and connections with the occupiers.