Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed into law legislation banning religious organizations linked to the Russian Orthodox Church from operating in Ukraine.
The move was announced on the parliament’s website on August 24 as Ukraine celebrated its Independence Day.
Zelenskiy commented on his signing the law, one of several pieces of legislation targeting Russia that he signed on August 24, during a recorded video address to the nation.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) is "today taking a step toward liberation from Moscow's devils," Zelenskiy said.
The OCU, which is aligned with Kyiv, was granted independence from the Moscow Patriarchate by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2019, the leading voice in the Orthodox world.
The Russian-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) declared it severed all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2023 due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, the Ukrainian authorities accuse it of maintaining ties.
The adoption of the law, which was passed by parliament earlier this month, is considered a watershed moment in Ukraine, where Orthodox Christianity has been riven for decades in large part over the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and of the war against Ukraine.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has searched key churches and monasteries and opened dozens of criminal investigations into UOC clerics. Some senior UOC figures have been sanctioned by presidential decrees, including the abbot of Kyiv's ancient Monastery of the Caves, Metropolitan Pavlo.
In June, Ukraine handed over Metropolitan Ionafan -- a UOC diocese head who was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of supporting the Russian invasion -- to Russia in a prisoner swap. He was received with honors by Patriarch Kirill.
A May 2024 survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that about 82 percent of respondents said they do not trust the UOC, and 63 percent said it should be banned entirely.
The law signed by Zelenskiy on August 24 is to go into effect 30 days after its publication. Among other things it stipulates that the Russian Orthodox Church cannot be the owner or participant of legal entities registered in Ukraine. Religious communities in Ukraine will have nine months to break ties with Russian-linked entities.
The UOC has said it has no administrative ties with foreign religious organizations.
Patriarch Kirill on August 24 responded to the law by calling on other Christian religious leaders and international organizations to “raise their voices in defense of persecuted believers.”
Also on August 24, Ukraine ratified a statute that paves the way for Ukraine to join the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants for several Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin over war crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
Zelenskiy also signed a law that allows foreigner who fight in the Ukrainian Army against Russia the right to gain Ukrainian citizenship.
