VRU Parliamentary Committee supports final version of Bill 8371

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Photo: wikipedia.org

Members of Parliament Volodymyr Vyatrovych and Iryna Herashchenko announced that the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had supported the final version of Bill 8371, which aims to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They shared this information on their social media.

Herashchenko mentioned that the next plenary week will begin with the consideration of this bill in the session hall.

Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, MP Yevheniya Kravchuk, stated in an interview with Interfax that the bill had been renamed.

"The Committee unanimously recommended adopting the bill in the second reading and in general. Amendments for the second reading were discussed and supported. One of the key changes is the new title of the bill – 'On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Activities of Religious Organizations,'" Kravchuk noted.

Kravchuk emphasized that the MPs also agreed on the timeline for the law's entry into force: it will come into effect 30 days after publication, with the exception of two points. The first point concerns the start of the preparation of normative acts by the Cabinet of Ministers, which will begin the day after publication.

As reported by the UOJ, President Zelensky urged the Rada to convene and resolve the issue of "spiritual independence".

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