Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday, August 20, voted to ban the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as Kyiv cuts religious, social and institutional ties with bodies it considers aligned with Moscow.
Kyiv has been trying to curb spiritual links with Russia for years – a process that was accelerated by Moscow's 2022 invasion, which the powerful Russian Orthodox Church endorsed. A majority of MPs approved the bill outlawing religious organizations with ties to Russia, including the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is linked to the Moscow patriarchate.
The bill needs to be signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky to come into force and will take years to implement, but still caused dismay among followers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In Kyiv, believers were praying outside the Russian-affiliated part of the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a normal scene since the section was closed to the public last year.
The Russian Orthodox Church condemned the ban, with spokesman Vladimir Legoida writing on Telegram, "This is an unlawful act that is the grossest violation of the basic principles of freedom of conscience and human rights." Legoida said the bill creates "a legal basis for total liquidation of the parishes of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the religious community uniting the majority of Ukrainians." The spokesman warned that implementing this would "lead to acts of mass violence against millions of believers."
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, visiting Solovki monastery in northern Russia, referred to a "very difficult time when many have turned against us (...) not because we are bad but only because we are different."
The schism between Ukrainian and Russian-linked Churches was triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists in the east. The Istanbul-based head of the Eastern Orthodox Church granted a breakaway wing, called the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), autocephaly – religious independence – from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019.
The Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially broke ties with its Russian counterpart in 2022, but some lawmakers have accused its leaders of collaborating with Russian clergymen despite the invasion. The bill was welcomed by President Zelensky, who wrote on social media: "Today I want to note the work of the Verkhovna Rada. A law on our spiritual independence has been adopted." He added that the government would "continue to strengthen Ukraine and our society."
"There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine," Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said on Telegram. Lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko called the vote historic.
"This is a matter of national security, not religion," she said in a post on Telegram. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine was trying to "destroy (...) true Orthodoxy."