DESS develops law on UOC ban not in Ukraine's interests, religious scholar

Viktor Yelensky. Photo: DESS's Facebook

Religious scholar Andriy Kovalev criticized the Ukrainian authorities' approach to the "law on UOC ban", stating that it was developed by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience contrary to the state's interests. He said this on "Channel 5".

Commenting on the implementation of the "law on UOC ban," Kovalev noted that as early as 2022, Zelensky was imposed an erroneous and essentially hostile strategy for fighting the UOC.

Kovalev drew attention to the fact that the proposed model involves deregistering about 8 thousand communities, which will essentially not go anywhere.

"Millions of believers will not disappear anywhere. More than a hundred bishops and several thousand priests will not dissolve. They are simply being pushed underground," he stated, adding that such a strategy is absolutely ineffective and dangerous for the state.

The religious scholar emphasized that transferring the country's largest religious community from public and legal space to an underground state cannot serve Ukraine's national interests. In his view, this is precisely what the course proposed to the President’s inner circle by the law's drafters leads to.

"I do not know what motivated the people in President Zelensky’s circle who presented themselves as professionals and claimed expertise in this matter. In general, this strategy is hostile and entirely ineffective," he said.

Kovalenko also asserts that "the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, which drafted this bill, actually acted not in Ukraine's interests," and specifically those who imposed this particular strategy of countering the UOC on the president. "It is not in the interests of the state to push this religious organization out of the public, legal sphere and turn it into an underground organization," he concluded.

As the UOJ wrote, the Supreme Court opened appellate proceedings on the UOC's complaint against DESS.

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