Defending itself against Russia’s armed aggression, Ukraine legally bans Russian Church
Russian propaganda tried to portray the fact that the Ukrainian government banned the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church as a “persecution of Christians” and as a tendency of the West, which supports Ukraine, to destroy Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church. This kind of narrative is also gaining traction on social networks in North Macedonia, promoted by supporters of the Kremlin, who see it as the guardian of Orthodoxy and traditional values—just as Putin often likes to portray himself
Russian propaganda tried to portray the fact that the Ukrainian government banned the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church as a “persecution of Christians” and as a tendency of the West, which supports Ukraine, to destroy Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church. This kind of narrative is also gaining traction on social networks in North Macedonia, promoted by supporters of the Kremlin, who see it as the guardian of Orthodoxy and traditional values—just as Putin often likes to portray himself
Author: Ana Anastasovska
With 256 votes “in favor”, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) on the 20th of August adopted a bill banning the activities of religious organizations connected to Russia, i.e. banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOCMP), which is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
The law enters into force 30 days after its publication, but UOCMP communities will have nine months to completely sever ties with the Russian church, MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak explained.
The draft law was initially registered in parliament in January 2023, shortly after the detailed searches by security authorities who uncovered Russian propaganda, Russian passports and xenophobic literature on UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) premises.
Russian propaganda tried to portray such steps by the Ukrainian government against the church connected to Moscow as “persecution of Christians” and as a tendency of the West, which supports Ukraine, to destroy Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church. Such a narrative is also gaining traction on social networks in North Macedonia and is, of course, promoted by supporters of the Kremlin, who view it as a guardian of Orthodoxy and traditional values, just as Putin often likes to portray himself.
Often, pro-Kremlin disinformation pundits, particularly Vladimir Solovyov, deploy this disinformation narrative in conjunction with unfounded accusations against Ukraine for allegedly attempting to destroy the Orthodox Church. This manipulative tactic picked up steam in 2019 when the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was granted the status of an independent church and again in November 2022 when the Ukrainian government announced it would draw up a law banning churches affiliated with Russia, writes EUvsDisinfo.
Propaganda that Kyiv wants to destroy Orthodoxy also spreads in North Macedonia
After the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill banning the activities of the UOC, comments such as “Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has just banned the work of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and thereby attacked the Christian religion” could be read on Facebook.
Another post says:
Zelensky’s regime now embodies everything the EU and the US claim to stand against: oppression of religious freedom, suppression of free media and blatant disregard for democracy. Under normal circumstances, this would trigger an American invasion-but that already happened in 2014.
A third post says:
Ukraine continued the fascist persecution and banned by law the only canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church led by Metropolitan Onufry.
Some of the media outlets published that “Zelensky banned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”, and some also shared Zakharova’s statement that “Kyiv is trying to destroy Orthodoxy at its roots.”
Such narratives that Zelensky, with the support of the West, wants to destroy Orthodoxy in Ukraine are not true, that is, they are false. In Ukraine, 72 percent of the population declares itself as Orthodox. However, after the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, a division, that is, animosity appeared between believers belonging to different Orthodox churches, one being the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOCMP) and the other the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).
As Kyiv claims, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOCMP) is directly connected and supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, and that is why the authorities have prepared a draft law to ban it, or allow it to re-register, that is, to establish a new church that does not have to be connected in any way with the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Kirill.
The reason for this move by Zelensky’s government is that the Russian Orthodox Church openly supported the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and officially calls it a “special operation”.
The Russian Orthodox Church even released a document stating that “the special military operation is a new phase of the national struggle for freedom of Russians against the criminal regime of Kyiv and the collective West.”
Russian people, with arms in hand, defend their life, freedom, statehood, civilizational, religious, national and cultural identity, as well as the right to live on their own land within the borders of a single Russian state. From a spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation is a Holy War, in which Russia and its people, defend the single spiritual space of the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West that has fallen into Satanism, says this document published by the official webpage of the Russian Orthodox Church.
It is precisely such attitudes of the Russian Orthodox Church, among them the statement that “the entire territory of modern Ukraine should enter the exclusive zone and influence of Russia” and that “the possibility of a political regime hostile to Russia and the people of Russia existing in that territory must be completely excluded,” is the reason why Ukraine wants to protect itself from an Orthodox Church on its territory that is attached to Moscow.
Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine is openly supported by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill.
Zelensky: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church undermines Ukrainian unity
The Centre for Strategic Communication under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine found that the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is spreading Russian propaganda, covering the activities of hostile services and recruiting Russian agents.
The Security Service of Ukraine filed criminal charges against 65 priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, sanctions were imposed on 17 priests, while 19 bishops were stripped of their citizenship.
Professor Viktor Yelensky, stated for CNN that for more than 30 years the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has been “poisoning people with the ideas of the Russian world.” He defended the searches carried out by security services in churches, comparing them to the crackdown on Islamic extremism after 9/11.
Zelensky accused the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, of undermining Ukrainian unity and collaborating with Moscow.
We will continue this movement. We will not allow the terrorist state any opportunity to manipulate the spiritual life of our people, to destroy Ukrainian shrines—our Lavras—or to steal values from them, said Zelensky in 2023.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially separated from the Russian Orthodox Church in 2018
In October 2018, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially split from the Russian Orthodox Church after more than 300 years. The decision was approved by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, also known as The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople or the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The same month the declaration was announced, the Russian Orthodox Church announced it would cut ties with the Patriarchate.
As a result of the schism, the Russian Orthodox Church lost much of its territory and believers and most importantly, its spiritual and symbolic authority over Ukraine. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill condemned the schism.
The fact that Zelensky’s government passed a bill banning the activities of the church under Moscow’s jurisdiction does not mean that Zelensky is persecuting Orthodox Christians from Ukraine, nor that the is oppressing the Orthodox Church. In Ukraine, the majority of the population is Orthodox and there are still Orthodox churches throughout the country. The point of the new law is not to destroy Orthodoxy, as the Kremlin wants to portray it, but to prevent Russia from installing its own networks through the church in Ukraine, which Ukraine’s security services have already warned against.
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