Ukraine will limit the activities on its territory of religious organizations affiliated with Russia and question the status of the Orthodox Church dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday.
“The National Security and Defense Council has instructed the government to propose to parliament a bill to make impossible the activities in Ukraine of religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in Russia,” the Ukrainian president said in his video speech. daily.
According to him, the Ukrainian State will also have to “ensure the religious expertise of the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the presence of a canonical link with the Moscow Patriarchate and, if necessary, take the measures provided for by the law “.
Searches carried out in several religious establishments
These measures follow searches carried out in November by the Ukrainian security services in the main monastery of the capital kyiv, place of residence of the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and several other places of worship, amid suspicions of links with Moscow. The Ukrainian services then claimed to have seized several thousand dollars and “pro-Russian literature”.
Other searches took place in monasteries in Bucovinaa region in southwestern Ukraine, in Transcarpathiain the region of Rivne and in the Zhytomyr region. In particular, documents attesting to the Russian citizenship of several occupants were found, ensure the intelligence services.
Ukraine, a country with an Orthodox majority, is divided between a Church dependent on the Moscow Patriarchate – which however announced that it would sever its ties with Russia at the end of May due to the invasion of the country – and by another Church represented by the Patriarchate of kyiv having pledged in 2019 allegiance to Patriarch Bartholomew, based in Istanbul.
The Russian Orthodox Church, whose patriarch Kirill is an important supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had denounced the searches carried out in Ukraine as an “act of intimidation” against believers.