On Tuesday, Ukrainian parliamentarians voted to ban the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, continuing Kyiv’s efforts to dismantle religious, social and institutional ties with organizations it sees as allied with Moscow.
Ukraine has been trying for years to limit its religious ties with Russia – a process that was greatly accelerated by Moscow’s 2022 invasion, which was endorsed by the influential Russian Orthodox Church.
On Tuesday, 265 deputies of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada voted for a law banning religious organizations with suspected ties to Russia, including the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The bill required 226 votes to pass in the 450-seat parliament. 49 seats are vacant due to the Russian occupation of eastern Ukrainian territories and the departure or recall of MPs.
The vote in the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday was welcomed by the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine,” Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on Telegram. The bill now needs Zelensky’s signature to become law.
The first deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Herashchenko, described the vote as “historic” and a “matter of national security”.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which officially severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church in 2022, has been accused by some lawmakers of maintaining covert ties with the Russian clergy despite the ongoing war.
In 2019, the Istanbul-based head of the Eastern Orthodox Church granted religious independence from the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine – a breakaway faction. The split was triggered by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Despite the schism, many congregations and believers remained loyal to the church, which had alleged ties to Moscow.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the Verkhovna Rada vote on Tuesday and accused Ukraine of trying to “destroy true Orthodoxy.”
