Dumenko claims Venice Commission allegedly approved law banning the UOC

Dumenko at a meeting with representatives of Nordic Churches. Photo: OCU

On September 30, 2025, the residence of Epifaniy Dumenko was visited by a religious delegation from the Nordic countries, the OCU website reported.

The delegation included Archbishop Leo, Primate of the Finnish Church of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as representatives of the Lutheran Churches of Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Dumenko told his guests about the UOC, which he called a “structure affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate,” and spoke of the “need to protect the spiritual security of the state.”

In particular, Dumenko misled the Nordic Church representatives, claiming that the law banning the UOC “had passed the review of the Venice Commission” and was “directed not against faith, but at protecting freedom of religion from Russian enemy instrumentalization through propaganda.”

Meanwhile, there is no public information that the Venice Commission ever examined the law banning the UOC.

It should be recalled that the Ukrainian authorities themselves blocked submission of the law to the Venice Commission. In January 2024, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk announced that he had denied MPs’ request to send Draft Law No. 8371 (on banning the UOC) for Venice Commission review. In April 2024, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called on Ukraine to refer the bill to the Venice Commission. In August 2024, UOC attorney Robert Amsterdam stressed that his firm had urged Ukraine to submit Bill No. 8371 for review by the Venice Commission – a call supported by other members of the international community, including the Anglican Church.

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