Two bills on banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine were submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. Representatives of the religious organization have decried the move, threatening “increasing threats” to Ukraine’s national security if Parliament passed new legislation.
The statement was made by religious figures during a Verkhovna Rada committee hearing. The UOC-MP clergy called such a decision “hasty and ill-considered,” TSN reports.
“The ban and cessation of operations of the largest Orthodox denomination in Ukraine will not weaken, but rather increase threats to Ukraine’s national security,” said representatives of the UOC-MP.
Meanwhile, the sponsors of the bill believe that the UOC-MP is an environment that supports the hostile ideology of the “Russian world” and a form of instrumentalization of religious organizations in Ukraine in order to strengthen the impact on the population as an additional tool of war.
It should be noted that religious figures of various denominations, scholars, civil society leaders, lawyers, people’s deputies, and other participants were involved in the hearings.
Earlier, the OCU Synod called on the authorities to ban the MP in Ukraine as an instrument of hybrid aggression. Instead, the UOC-MP considers the bill, which obliges them to sever ties and submission to the Russian Church, illegitimate.
