His Beatitude Sviatoslav and Metropolitan Epiphanius discuss ban on Russian church

The recent law banning the activities of Russian linked religious organizations in Ukraine is aimed at protecting against the weaponization of religion, clarified His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). 

“This law concerns all religious organizations with leadership centers in countries recognized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as aggressors. Russia has used its controlled Orthodoxy as a tool of militarization, turning it into a neurotropic weapon,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav indicated.

The Russian Orthodox Church has instrumentalized and militarized religion in the context of war. “Another aspect of the new law, according to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, is protection against the ideology of the ‘Russian World’. The law addresses this ideology in the same way that European countries treat the ideology of extremist religious groups like ISIS,” the UGCC wrote.

Major religious centers in Russia promote the ideology of the ‘Russian World,’ said Metropolitan Epiphanius, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). “They spread the ideology of the ‘Russian World’ and justify the war against Ukraine. They claim it is a so-called Holy War, that the destruction of Ukraine is supposedly a morally justified goal and even a duty of Russian troops,” Metropolitan Epiphanius elaborated.

The occupiers are endeavoring to spread such a false ideology in Ukraine, including through religious institutions. “Therefore, in defending our people from Russian aggression, we must act not only on the battlefield, in information, diplomatic, economic, and other spheres, but also in the spiritual sphere. Without spiritual independence from the Kremlin, from the Russian empire of evil, we cannot talk about our true independence,” the OCU Primate argued.

The protection of Ukraine’s spiritual independence is essential in the struggle of preserving national independence, Metropolitan Epiphanius concluded.

It was August 20, when the Ukrainian parliament passed the law prohibiting Russian connected religious organizations from pursuing their activities. Previously, the State Service of Ukraine on Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) had concluded that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is an organization connected to Russia. The new law now only awaits the signature of the Ukrainian President.