Kyiv
CNN
—
Away from the front lines, Ukraine is waging a different battle against Russia, seeking to eliminate Moscow’s influence over religious institutions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on Saturday, Ukraine’s Independence Day, banning religious groups with ties to Russia. The main target of the law is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is historically linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, also known as the Moscow Patriarchate.
Zelensky referred to the bill in his evening speech, saying that “Ukrainian Orthodoxy today is taking a step towards liberation from the demons of Moscow.”
The new law gives the UOC and other religious groups nine months to sever ties with Russia or face being dissolved by court order. The law was passed by the Ukrainian parliament on August 20, with 265 votes in favor and 29 against.
While the UOC claims to have severed ties with the Russian Orthodox Church in 2022, the Ukrainian State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience says the ties are still intact and the church remains in Moscow’s orbit.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of spreading pro-Moscow propaganda. Since the start of the large-scale invasion, the SBU has opened criminal cases against more than 100 clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Nearly 50 of them have already been charged and 26 have been convicted, according to the SBU.
One of the convicted priests advocated in his sermons the large-scale invasion of Russia and the conquest of parts of Ukraine. In conversations with parishioners, the priest tried to persuade them to go to Russia or the occupied regions to help the Russians. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
The aim of the law is to ban the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, “which is an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda,” according to Mykyta Poturaev, a Ukrainian MP who sponsored the bill.
“The Moscow Patriarchate is not a source of inspiration, but a participant in the war,” Poturaev said.
The majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox. For centuries, Ukrainian churches were subordinate to and administered by the Moscow Patriarchate. But with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Orthodox churches of Ukraine split. In 2019, the spiritual leader of the Orthodox world, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, officially recognized an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church based in kyiv.
For Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Ukrainian Church based in kyiv, the law offers an opportunity to “protect the Ukrainian spiritual space from the yoke of the Russian world.”
“Everyone can see that in Russia, religious centers, not only the Moscow Patriarchate, but also Muslim, Protestant and Buddhist centers, are under the complete control of the Kremlin. They spread the ideology of the Russian world, justify the war against Ukraine and say that this is a so-called holy war. That the destruction of Ukraine is a morally justified goal and even a duty of the Russian troops,” he said.
According to a poll conducted in April 2024 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), 83% of Ukrainians believe that the state should intervene in the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to one degree or another. In particular, 63% believe that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be completely banned in Ukraine.
Metropolitan Clement, a spokesman for the UOC, criticized the bill in a statement on Facebook, calling the law an attempt to “divide people into good and bad citizens.”
Outside a Ukrainian Orthodox Church church in kyiv, a 47-year-old parishioner said the recent crackdown on his church was suffocating. “The government is now intruding into my soul. It’s up to me how I pray. They’ve gone completely crazy,” the parishioner – who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals – told CNN.
Ihor, a Ukrainian officer, used to attend the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but said he has stopped going altogether.
Although he does not believe that politics should interfere with religion, he acknowledges that “many priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church support Russia and the war in Ukraine. They must answer for this before God.”
Kosta Gak contributed reporting.
