A lawyer for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church called the law banning it a religious purge and a violation of human rights

The lawyer for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Robert Amsterdam, has condemned the bill passed today by the Verkhovna Rada, which effectively bans the church, calling it “religious cleansing” and “a new dark chapter in the history of human rights violations in Ukraine.”

His statement was published on the Save the UOC website.

The lawyer stated that “the majority of the Verkhovna Rada succumbed to nationalist pressure” and added that the lobbyists of the bill will bear international responsibility. He described the bill as “a form of targeted discrimination that infringes on the rights of millions of Ukrainian citizens who belong to the country’s oldest Christian denomination.”

Amsterdam also detailed aspects of the bill. According to him, the connection between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) will be determined by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. If this agency finds that the two churches are connected, it will file a lawsuit in administrative court to terminate the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Amsterdam pointed out that officials could use the ROC’s charter, which outlines its connection to the UOC, as a criterion for such a link. However, the Ukrainian church cannot influence changes to the ROC’s charter.

The lawyer reminded that after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church removed references to the Russian Orthodox Church from its charter and declared its complete independence, including resuming the production of myrrh in Kyiv and opening overseas parishes.

In Amsterdam’s view, officials might ignore these facts under the new bill. If the court upholds the lawsuit, it would strip the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of its legal identity, property rights and the ability to conduct religious activities, effectively forcing its followers to worship underground. He also noted that a lawsuit can only be filed in court nine months after establishing the fact of “connections with the Russian Orthodox Church.”