DESS head: Today there’s no request for unification but for outlawing the UOC

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: irp.news

On February 16, 2023, the head of the State Ethnic Policy, Viktor Yelensky, said that today there is no request for unification – there is a request for a ban on the UOC.

The DESS head said this at a round table of representatives of the clergy and laity of the UOC and the OCU "Church, society, state: dialogue for the sake of unity and victory" at the National Reserve "Sofia of Kyiv”, the video of which was published on the Viche YouTube channel.

“Now there is no such strong demand for this association. There is a demand in society that there should be no structures associated with Moscow. And so the deputies race to submit bills that relate to this ban,” said Yelensky.

According to him, 9 bills aimed at outlawing the UOC have already been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, but most of them cannot be implemented.

“For example, the bill says from tomorrow to ban the Russian Church. It is impossible to do this, because there is no such Russian church. Only a legal entity registered in the Unified State Register can be banned, but there is no such person. There is a government bill that proposes a working scheme – it establishes that the activities of structures, associated with centers that are outside of Ukraine in a country that has carried out or is now carrying out aggression against Ukraine, are prohibited. An examination is made further whether this or that organization is really connected with this center. If the examination establishes that there is such a relation, then the state body that implements policy in the field of religion issues an order to this organization: ‘Dear organization, break this connection in this or that plane.’ If the organization does not break this connection and does not comply with this instruction, then this state body for religious affairs will apply to the court to terminate this organization,” he added.

“Those who maintain this relation (with the Russian Orthodox Church – Ed.), who fight for it to the last, simply chose for themselves the path of confrontation not so much with the state but with Ukrainian society and with their faithful,” Yelensky summed up.

As previously reported by the UOJ, Yelensky said that the country's leadership is very interested in uniting the OCU and the UOC.

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