Chernihiv Regional Council urges central authorities to ban UOC

The Chernihiv Regional Council session on 6 June 2023 Photo: The Regional Council’s Facebook page

On 6 June 2023, at a session of the Chernihiv Regional Council, the deputies supported an appeal to the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada to ban the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, "its structural divisions and dependent organizations," reports unian.net.

The authors of the appeal claim that the UOC "occupies the leading place among the instruments of aggression (of the RF – Ed.) both through direct collaboration – criminal cooperation of clerics with the occupants, and through spreading enemy narratives, promoting hostility among Ukrainians, justifying Russian aggression and preventing the unification of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians".

The initiator of the appeal, an MP of the regional council, Yuliya Zaika, said that even international documents allow restricting the activities of religious organizations in cases of threats to national security, "and today we have exactly such a case".

"The banning of the Moscow Patriarchate is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of spreading collaboration, manipulation of the enemy and betrayal," says the deputy. “We must explain to the communities, to the faithful that no one is taking away the faith and the church. We are working to protect the interests and security of Ukraine".

As reported, the Zakarpattia Regional Council earlier banned the UOC's activities in the region.

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