UKRAINE: The legal fate of the UOC MP against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine
HRWF (07.10.2025) – Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the attention of the Ukrainian authorities to religious organizations with actual or presumed ties to the Russian Federation has intensified. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP) has become the central object of legal and public attention, as its jurisdictional and administrative independence is disputed both in Ukraine and beyond.
Accusations against its clergy are accompanied by numerous criminal cases, while international organizations express concern about the restriction of religious freedom.
It was established that a number of clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church simultaneously with Ukrainian citizenship also received Russian citizenship.
Position of the President of Ukraine
On July 2, 2025, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that work regarding persons who associated themselves with Russia is ongoing:
“Persons with political influence and a Russian passport, persons working against the independence of Ukraine in all dimensions, including against spiritual independence, everyone who supports the aggression or justifies it – all such persons will have no place in Ukraine. We are making the appropriate decisions,” Zelensky said.
On the same day, the President of Ukraine, by his Decree, terminated the Ukrainian citizenship of Orest Berezovsky, better known as Metropolitan Onufriy of thy UOC MP.
The reason for the deprivation of citizenship was the fact that Metropolitan Onufriy (Orest Berezovsky) held Russian citizenship. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, the Head of the UOC MP has had a Russian passport since 2002, which he did not report to the Ukrainian authorities.
Earlier, the UOC MP denied the presence of Russian passports held by Metropolitan Onufriy and other hierarchs of the Church. Later, Metropolitan Onufriy stated that he does not consider himself a citizen of Russia, although he admitted that he had Russian citizenship, which he supposedly lost.
This case is not the first instance of deprivation of UOC MP clergy of Ukrainian citizenship.
In 2023, Ukrainian journalists from “Ukrainska Pravda” published the results of an investigation, according to which Metropolitan Onufriy and more than 20 priests of the UOC MP have Russian citizenship.
At the beginning of 2023, the citizenship of 13 representatives of six dioceses of the UOC MP was suspended by a decree of the President of Ukraine. This included representatives of the Donetsk, Crimean, Romny, Odesa, and Bukovyna dioceses.
According to available information from the Security Service of Ukraine, Metropolitan Onufriy “continues to maintain ties with the Moscow Patriarchate and consciously opposes the UOC obtaining canonical independence from the Moscow Patriarchate, whose representatives support Russian aggression against Ukraine. First and foremost, this refers to ongoing close relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and its leadership, in particular with Patriarch Kirill (Gundyayev).”
Criminal cases: SBU facts
At the end of June 2025, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) named the number of UOC clergy to whom the agency has delivered notices of suspicion.
According to the Head of the SBU of Ukraine Vasyl Maliuk, since the beginning of the full-scale conflict, the SBU has initiated 174 criminal proceedings against clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Of these:
- 122 clerics have already received notices of suspicion;
- 31 have been sentenced by the court.
The charges include: collaboration, state treason, justification of aggression, assistance to the Russian Federation, illegal transfer of persons, and propaganda of totalitarian ideas.
The SBU emphasizes that criminal cases are initiated for specific illegal actions, not on the basis of religious affiliation.
According to the Head of the SBU, having holy orders is neither a privilege nor an aggravating circumstance:
“Having a cassock and a censer is not an aggravating circumstance, but it does not exempt one from criminal liability either. There will be no indulgences for those who work against Ukraine under the cover of the church.”
Vasyl Maliuk emphasized that the agency continues its efforts to suppress the activities of those he refers to as “agents in cassocks.” Among the dominant accusations against representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are collaboration, state treason, and cooperation with the enemy.
International legal assessment
On December 31, 2024, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published its 41st report on the situation in Ukraine for the period September 1 – November 30, 2024.
In it, the Office of the UN High Commissioner analyzes changes to Ukrainian legislation**, which came into force on September 23, 2024, regarding the prohibition in Ukraine of foreign religious organizations located in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine or has occupied its territories — specifically the ban on the Russian Orthodox Church — as well as the inspection of Ukrainian religious organizations for affiliation with religious organizations of the aggressor state. It states:
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights do not recognize “national security” as grounds for restricting the activities of religious associations. Nevertheless, such changes to Ukrainian legislation represent disproportionate restrictions on freedom of religion or belief.
- Concerns are raised by provisions of Ukrainian law stating that a Ukrainian religious organization may be dissolved if its connection to a banned religious organization of the Russian Federation is proven, which may affect the UOC.
- The dissolution of a religious organization is a serious restriction that affects the ability of individuals to practice their religion and beliefs collectively and threatens the vitality of the community as a whole, which requires very serious justification for such restrictions. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner, Ukraine has not demonstrated the necessity and proportionality of such measures, for example, why less severe means of restriction, such as actions against specific individuals responsible for violations, would be inappropriate or insufficient.
- The Office of the UN High Commissioner draws attention to the vagueness of the Ukrainian law’s wording regarding the dissolution of a religious organization if its “authorized persons” are convicted of crimes, including crimes against national security or dissemination of the ideology of the “Russian world.” Such provisions may result in holding the entire community responsible for the actions of individuals. Moreover, overly broad and vague wording may threaten the right to freedom of expression.
- In the case of the banning of a Ukrainian religious organization on the grounds of affiliation with another banned organization, this may lead to the dissolution of other interrelated religious organizations without individual consideration. As a result, based on decisions by executive authorities on prohibited affiliation, there arise obligations to terminate lease agreements with religious organizations, which may deprive them of access to religious premises and limit religious freedom, contributing to social tension.
Conclusion: Balance between security and individual rights
Ukraine faces the need to ensure national security by countering aggression and clergy working in the interests of the Russian Federation.
However, mass legal actions may lead to:
- Stigmatization of believers;
- Restriction of religious freedom;
- International claims regarding human rights violations.
Recommendations
- To continue targeted investigations with evidence;
- To guarantee transparency of judicial processes and the right to defense;
- To respect the rights of peaceful believers, regardless of their church affiliation.
Footnotes
* In the register of religious organizations and official documents, the UOC does not have the suffix “Moscow Patriarchate.” In spring 2022, the UOC amended its statute to remove direct references to subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate. However, according to an expert report conducted by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) for 2021, the UOC is a structural subdivision of the ROC and belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate.
** Let us recall that on August 20, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed, in the second reading and as a whole, a draft law banning in the country religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. The bill was supported by 265 deputies, 29 voted against, and four abstained.
“There will be no Moscow church in Ukraine,” commented the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak Andriy Yermak , on Telegram regarding the vote.
In turn, the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations — without participation of UOC representatives— stated that it supports the legislative initiative to ban in Ukraine the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Photo: Фото: митрополит Онуфрій (facebook.com/Metropolitan.Onufriy)
