UKRAINE: 18 August: deadline for the UOC-MP to break off relations with Russia or…
Interfax (17.07.2025) – The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) issued an order to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to eliminate violations of the legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations by 18 August.
“According to the results of the study on the presence of signs of affiliation of the Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with a foreign religious organization, whose activities are prohibited on the territory of Ukraine, the Kiev Metropolis of the UOC issued an order to eliminate violations of the legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations,” the department said in a statement.
It is noted that, in accordance with the legislation, the UOC (MP) is obliged to eliminate the identified violations before 18 August 2025.
The order to eliminate violations of the legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations can be found HERE.
As reported, on 9 May, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the procedure for conducting a study on the issue of the presence of signs of affiliation of a religious organization with a foreign religious organization, whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine, as well as the procedure for considering the issue of confirming the facts of using a religious organization to promote the ideology of the “Russian world”.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) appealed in court against the government’s decision to approve the procedure for conducting a study on the issue of signs of affiliation of a religious organization with a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine.
On 20 May, the State Ethnopolitics launched a study on the issue of signs of affiliation of the UOC (MP) with a banned foreign religious organization.
On 2 July, Vladimir Zelensky terminated the citizenship of Ukraine of Metropolitan Onufriy, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. According to the SBU materials, he has a Russian passport.
On 9 July, the State Ethnopolitics said that it had found signs of affiliation of the UOC (MP) with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine.
HRWF Note
What DESS wants the UOC to do:
- Withdraw from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
- Declare the ROC Statute invalid for the UOC.
- All clergy of the UOC must withdraw from any ROC governing bodies.
- Declare invalid any ROC decisions concerning UOC dioceses in the occupied territories.
- Metropolitan Onuphry must declare his withdrawal from the ROC’s governing bodies.
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