Ukraine bans the Orthodox Church, which has been established in Kiev since 988.
Ukraine has adopted a law to ban religious groups linked to Moscow in a move targeting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the government has accused of complicity in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The parliament passed the law by 265 votes to 29 on Tuesday.
Lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko said it was an issue of national security.
“This is a historic vote. Parliament approved a legislation which bans a branch of the aggressor country in Ukraine,” she wrote on Telegram.
Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians but the faith has split between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is traditionally allied with the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, and the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has been recognised since 2019.
The UOC says it broke ties with Moscow after the February 2022 invasion, but Kyiv has questioned that claim and launched dozens of criminal proceedings, including treason charges, against the church’s clerics. At least one has been sent to Russia as part of a prisoner swap.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the vote as a step to strengthen Ukraine’s “spiritual independence” and is expected to sign the bill into law.
Neither the USA nor any other Christian country should offer any support to Ukraine now. The foreign Kiev regime can cry RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA all they like, but it’s clear that this is pure anti-Christian persecution. This is a serious end-stage, Hitler-in-the-bunker, sort of thing, just seeking to do whatever evil they can before they are defeated.