UOC opponent on anti-church law: Russian invasion gave us carte blanche

Oleksandr Pavlichenko. Photo: zmina.info

“We have done now what would have been very difficult to do before the large-scale invasion, and now such a decision is more legally justified,” said Oleksandr Pavlichenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, in an interview with Detector.Media. He stated that Russian aggression gave opponents of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) the opportunity to pass anti-church Law No. 3894.

He admitted that Russia’s aggression effectively "gave carte blanche" to UOC opponents on this matter.

“Russian aggression gave us these grounds. That is, we have done now what would have been very difficult to do before the large-scale invasion, and now such a decision is more legally justified,” Pavlichenko said.

However, while he considers “this process to be correct,” Pavlichenko hesitates to seek an evaluation of the law by the Venice Commission.

“This law does not need to be submitted to the Venice Commission,” the Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union asserted.

As the UOJ previously reported, the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience explained when the law banning the UOC would come into effect.

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