Ukraine passes law banning Russia-linked branch of Orthodox Church

Photo: Sergei Supinsky Agence France-Presse The implementation of this law may take a long time, because the ban on each parish or diocese must be ratified by a court, according to media reports.

Barbara Wojazer – Agence France-Presse in kyiv

Published at 12:08 p.m.

• Europe

The Ukrainian parliament voted on Tuesday in the final reading a bill providing for the banning of the Orthodox Church linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, often considered a relay of influence for the Kremlin, after two and a half years of Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A “historic” decision according to Ukrainian deputies and immediately denounced by Russia, but which is also largely symbolic, because its implementation risks taking months, even years.

“A law on our spiritual independence has been adopted”, welcomed President Volodymyr Zelensky on social networks, who is at the origin of this measure.

“Historic decision! Parliament has passed a bill that bans a sector of the aggressor country in Ukraine,” wrote an opposition MP, Iryna Guerashchenko, on Telegram.

The branch of the Church targeted by this decision was once the most popular in Ukraine, a country whose vast majority of residents are Orthodox. But it has lost many followers in recent years as Ukrainian national sentiment has gained popularity in the face of former dominant power Russia.

This process accelerated with the creation in 2018 of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and then, even more so, with the start in February 2022 of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, openly supported by Russian Patriarch Kirill.

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The branch formerly dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate broke off relations with the latter a few months later, in May 2022. However, the Ukrainian authorities consider that it is still under Russian influence and have increased the number of legal measures against it.

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Moscow's anger

According to media reports, the Russian-linked Church still has some 9,000 parishes in Ukraine, compared to 8,000 to 9,000 for its independent rival.

The new law opens up the possibility of eventually banning the former’s dioceses and parishes in Ukraine.

The vote is part of Kiev’s policy of ending more than 300 years of Russian religious tutelage, which has intensified since Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, followed by the armed conflict in Donbass (eastern Ukraine) instigated by Russia ten years ago.

The text, adopted in first reading last October, was approved on Tuesday by 265 deputies, the minimum required being 226.

His path in Parliament was not easy, however, due to, according to opposition media, deputies considered pro-Russian, but also some of their colleagues from the presidential party, who were reluctant.

Unsurprisingly, Russia immediately denounced the measure.

“This is an illegal act that constitutes the most flagrant violation of the fundamental principles of freedom of conscience and human rights,” accused the spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Legoida, on Telegram.

The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, denounced a decision aimed at “destroying canonical and true Orthodoxy and bringing in its place a substitute, a false Church ».

Influence in decline

According to media reports, the implementation of this law may take a long time, because the ban on each parish or diocese must be ratified by a court.

In front of the famous Kiev Caves Lavra monastery, where the church once had its headquarters and where several dozen of its monks still live, a handful of faithful were praying on Tuesday under a blazing sun.

A woman among them, Svetlana, admitted to being worried about this ban. “I was baptized and married in this church,” she explains.

“If the church closes, people will continue to pray in the streets, maybe we will set up tents,” adds the 56-year-old worshipper.

Igor, a 21-year-old musician, is of the opposite opinion. “I fully support this ban,” he says, accusing the church of being de facto “a special service of the Kremlin.”

According to a 2023 poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, 66% of Ukrainians were in favor of banning this branch of the Church linked to Moscow.

Furthermore, 54% of Ukrainians identified with the independent Church and only 4% with the one subject to the Russian Patriarchate, according to an opinion study carried out by the same organization in 2022, compared to 42% and 18% respectively the previous year.