Zelensky’s decree stripping UOC Primate of citizenship classified – media

V. Zelensky. Photo: rfi

According to the BBC, citing sources in the Presidential Office, “The President’s Office acknowledges the existence of such a decree but will not publish it,” journalists report.

UOC Deacon Andrii Hlushchenko notes that between July 1 and 3, 2025, the official presidential website did not publish the texts of two decrees: No.449 and No.451.

“Most likely, one of them is the one in question,” writes Fr. Andrii, adding that Zelensky has similarly classified other decrees concerning the UOC, in particular the well-known but unpublished Decree No.898/2022, by which in January 2023 Zelensky stripped 13 UOC hierarchs of their citizenship at once.

“Since the texts remain unpublished, it is impossible to learn from the primary source the official legal grounds on which the Ukrainian citizenship of all these bishops was ‘terminated,’” the deacon writes, stressing that “the mere fact of holding a second citizenship (even Russian) is not a legal basis for ‘terminating’ Ukrainian citizenship.”

“It’s obvious that the real goals of these decrees are to generate media noise (for the crowd: look, this is the one who was stripped of citizenship) and to maintain a constant threat of deportation (if you misbehave – we’ll drive you to Belarus). In other words, they have nothing to do with jurisprudence. Courts, lawsuits, human rights, articles of law and the Constitution… that’s not what this is about,” the deacon wrote.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Zelensky had commented on the decision to strip the UOC Primate of citizenship.

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