MP: Court annuls document allowing authorities to shut down UOC structures

Ihor Huz. Photo: Huz’s Facebook page

Ukrainian MP Ihor Huz complained that Kyiv’s Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal had annulled the only document on the basis of which the authorities could liquidate structures of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The MP wrote this on his Facebook page.

In his post, Huz accused the judges of working for the enemy without presenting any evidence. “Moscow is using its agents to save its religious network,” the MP claimed, stressing that all the judges who issued the ruling were from Donetsk Region. According to him, the court decision is “a far-reaching political game aimed at legitimizing this structure [the UOC – Ed.] in the country instead of banning it completely.”

On April 6, 2026, Kyiv’s Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, following a lawsuit by the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC, annulled the DESS order of January 2023, as well as the conclusion of the religious studies review of the UOC Statute. According to that conclusion, the UOC allegedly retained an ecclesiastical-canonical link with the Moscow Patriarchate. The court found a procedural violation: the DESS had failed to consider the UOC’s motion to recuse members of the expert group on grounds of bias. The actions of agency head Viktor Yelensky in approving the conclusion were also declared unlawful.

The DESS is now obliged to conduct a new religious studies review of the UOC Statute. The ruling entered into force immediately. Thus, the key legal instrument for applying the anti-Church law against UOC structures has temporarily lost force.

As reported by the UOJ, MP Huz had called on Rada deputies to vote for the ban on the UOC, calling it “the last Moscow stronghold” in Ukraine.

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