According to the Law, a religious organisation involved in multiple counts of dissemination of all or part of the “Russian world” ideology shall be deprived of legal status. The Law states that the dissemination can be committed by the organisation itself, as well as its ruling bodies, or any other person that acts on behalf of this religious o

The UOC declared its “full independence” from the ROC in May 2022, but it is highly unlikely that the ROC will accept this decision. The Ukrainian state seems to prefer to rely on ROC documents instead of UOC documents in defining the current status of the UOC. Under this logic and in the formal accordance with the Law, it is only necessary for

The OSCE Policy Guidance goes on to state: “Denial of legal personality or de-registration of a religious or belief community should not be based on alleged threats to security, but be clearly based on evidence of illegal acts by the religious or belief community in question.” It adds that this “can only be contemplated in cases of grave and

The Law also prohibits the so-called “Russian world” (Russky mir) ideology that claims Russia’s control, both political and spiritual, over Ukraine. Religious organisations involved in the repeated dissemination of this ideology will also be banned. This institutional involvement is understood broadly. If an individual priest or the head of t

This wide-ranging justification allows the banning of UOC communities whose clerics have been sentenced for the above-mentioned crimes, including cases of treason, collaboration and the justification of the Russian aggression, but also cases where Ukraine courts convicted defendants of claims of religious superiority or criticism of state favouriti