Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers Adopts Resolution to Streamline UOC Ban—Blocks US Access to Website

Kyiv, Ukraine—The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers' resolution is aimed at streamlining the process of banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Religious Information Service of Ukraine (RISU), operated by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic University in Lviv, reported the news on May 13th; the link to the resolution, however, is not accessible from American IP addresses and must be accessed using a VPN. 

We were able to use a European IP address to access the site, but even then, when we tried to download the hyperlinked resolution, it would fail to download. Once we switched the IP to a Kyivan address, we were able to download the resolution.

The resolution grants sweeping powers to a specially created research group under the authority of the State Service of Ethnopolicy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS). The purpose of this research group, according to the document, is to "conduct a study on the issue of the presence of signs of a religious organization's affiliation with a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine."

According to the language of the resolution, concrete evidence of association with a foreign religious organization is not necessary for action against it, merely signs of affiliation. 

As UOJ-Ukraine has noted, these signs of affiliation, primarily have to do with the Russian Church's view and activities, which the UOC has no control over. 

Due to the highly decentralized structure of the UOC, the government has struggled to swiftly eradicate the Church. Each temple is privately owned; thus, the government has to prove that each UOC temple is connected to the UOC before it can brand it as Russian and force its transfer to Constantinople's OCU. Resolution 543 hopes to accelerate this process.

The UOC has been completely pushed out of two regions in Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv.

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