Ukrainian Lawmakers Vote to Ban Moscow-Linked Orthodox Church

Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday voted to ban the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as Kyiv cuts religious, social and institutional ties with bodies it considers aligned with Moscow. 

Kyiv has been trying to curb spiritual links with Russia for years – a process that was hugely accelerated by Moscow's 2022 invasion, which the powerful Russian Orthodox Church sanctified.  

In a session of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, 265 MPs voted to approve a bill outlawing religious organisations linked with Russia, including the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is linked to the Moscow patriarchate, several MPs reported.

It needed 226 votes to pass the 450-seat parliament. Some 49 of those places are vacant due to Russia occupying territory in the country's east and other lawmakers having stepped down or been removed.

The bill was welcomed by President Volodymyr Zelensky's office.

"There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine," Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said on Telegram.

The bill needs to be signed by Zelensky to come into force.

Lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko called the vote "historic."

"This is a matter of national security, not religion," she said in a post on Telegram.

The Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church had ostensibly broken ties with its Russian counterpart in 2022, but some lawmakers have accused its leaders of collaborating with Russian clergymen and pro-Russian military forces despite the invasion.

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The industrial city, which had an estimated pre-war population of more than 700,000 people, lies around 35 kilometres from the nearest Russian positions.

The Constantinople-based Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bartholomew, who is considered the most authoritative figure in the Orthodox world, recognized the canonical status of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in 2019, granting it autocephaly. The Moscow Patriarchate has since been at loggerheads with Bartholomew.

Despite the OCU's canonical status, many parishes and worshippers have stuck with the Russia-linked church.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Tuesday that Ukraine was trying to "destroy... true Orthodoxy."

Under the measure passed on Tuesday, a time limit is set for religious organizations to formally break their ties to Russia.