Yelensky assures OSCE of Ukraine’s respect for religious freedom

V. Yelensky and the OSCE High Commissioner. Photo: DESS Facebook page

On 8 April 2025, a meeting took place at the office of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) between its head, Viktor Yelensky, and an OSCE delegation led by the High Commissioner on National Minorities, Christophe Kamp, reports the DESS press service.

During the meeting, the OSCE Commissioner raised the issue of ensuring freedom of religion, particularly in the context of the Ukrainian law "On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations' Activities" (commonly referred to as the law banning the UOC).

In response, Yelensky assured the High Commissioner that “this law in no way restricts religious freedom and is solely of a security-related nature”.

“It concerns the need to terminate organizational ties of religious structures with centers subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a matter of national security rather than interference with faith or religious practice,” Yelensky stated.

Whether the Commissioner was satisfied with this explanation is not mentioned in the report.

As a reminder, the DESS head has earlier assured his Romanian counterpart that Ukraine guarantees freedom of religion.

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