The Kremlin sees Ukraine as part of the so-called “Russian world” and has used this as a justification for its war of aggression. In response, Kiev has now banned the Orthodox Church, which is allied with Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed the controversial law banning the Orthodox Church, which is linked to Moscow. This is according to Ukraine’s official legal database. The long and controversial ban is justified by the Moscow Patriarchate’s support for the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
For a long time, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was the dominant force in Ukraine’s complicated church landscape. Until 2022, it belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate; after the war began, it officially severed ties with it and condemned the war. Nevertheless, Kyiv accuses it of justifying Russian crimes against its own people and spreading Russian propaganda. Dozens of members of the clergy have been suspected of having worked as spies or artillery observers for Russia.
An estimated three million believers are affected by the ban. The head of the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphany, has already called on them to convert. Epiphany’s national church already has more believers than the church associated with Moscow.
Moscow remains of the opinion that Ukraine is also part of Russia in ecclesiastical terms. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made a corresponding statement after the Ukrainian parliament’s decision on the ban: “The aim is to destroy the deeply canonical, true Orthodoxy,” she said. Moscow also said that the Ukrainian state was violating its citizens’ right to freedom of religion.
Source: Stern
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