Former Minister of Culture faces criminal case for anti-UOC rhetoric

Tochytskyi. Photo: Lavra Reserve press service

On July 31, 2025, investigators launched a pre-trial inquiry under Part 2 of Article 161 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code – the provision that punishes the incitement of national, racial, or religious hatred when committed by an official abusing his position.

The investigation concerns the alleged incitement of religious hatred committed by Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, Mykola Tochytskyi, and the case stems from Tochytskyi’s own words. Commenting on the dismissal of M. A. Ostapenko, the director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, Tochytskyi bluntly declared that he had fired him for not waging a strong enough fight against the so-called “Moscow spirit” in the Lavra, as reported the Lavra’s lawyer, Archpriest Mykyta Chekman.

As a reminder, Part 2 of Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine establishes stricter liability for incitement of national, racial, or religious hatred and enmity when committed by an official abusing his position.

The Lavra’s brotherhood responded swiftly, filing a complaint with the SBI through their lawyer, Archpriest Mykyta Chekman. For the monks, this was not just bureaucratic overreach but open religious hostility from a minister of state.

The law is clear: to incite religious hatred while wielding state authority carries heightened responsibility. And in this case, the words of the minister himself may now serve as the evidence against him.

The scandal underscores the growing pattern: officials in Ukraine increasingly speak of the UOC not as a community of millions of faithful citizens, but as an enemy to be rooted out. Now at least, one of those officials must answer to the law.

Ironically, the minister who dismissed others for supposed “Moscow sympathies” was himself dismissed just weeks earlier, on July 15.

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