Statement by Foreign Minister's Special Representative for International Cooperation in Ensuring the Right to Freedom of Religion Mikhail Melekh on the situation in the religious sphere in Ukraine
4 September 2025 16:54
1419-04-09-2025
The leadership of the state of Ukraine continues deliberately destroying its spiritual and cultural foundations, depriving millions of people of historical memory and wrecking national identity. The believers' rights are not even mentioned in the process.
In pursuance of the Law On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organisations adopted in 2024 and designed to liquidate the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), on August 27, 2025, the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience of Ukraine (Service) resolved to recognise the Metropolis of Kiev (the administrative centre of the Church) as affiliated with a foreign religious organisation that is the Russian Orthodox Church which is banned in Ukraine." This decision is beneath criticism from a legal point of view. It was preceded by backroom bureaucratic efforts to establish signs of affiliation, which in turn formally opened up access for Ukrainian government agencies to formalising a ban on the governing UOC body in court.
Under the guise of caring for the country's national interests, the Ukrainian government has been openly waging a war on the Church for many years using physical and psychological violence against believers and clergy, as well as raider seizures of churches in UOC church communities using forged documents.
This practice has become commonplace in the religious life of the country, and there are hundreds of cases like that. The entire process of liquidation of the UOC is built on the logic of these legal manipulations. Redistribution of property is its key goal. Almost. Simply put, this is nothing short of robbery.
On August 29, one of the people behind the UOC liquidation project, the so-called Service expert Yury Chernomorets, revealed in detail on the air of Radio NV the future of the country's largest religious denomination after the ruling passed by a Ukrainian court, whose impartiality is questioned even in the West. The issue at hand is bringing a final solution to the issue of property owned by the Church. We are talking about over 3,000 pieces of real estate, many of which are of historical importance and are architectural landmarks. After the liquidation of the head structure of the UOC, the state plans to unilaterally terminate all lease agreements previously concluded with the Church and seize the property. The expert believes it will be more challenging to take away properties built with the funds donated by religious communities and privately owned property, but still feasible.
Thus, for the sake of the self-interest of the corrupt elite of Ukraine, the country's Constitution has once again been torn up, as was the regulatory system.
In this context, Kiev's exceptional interest in the holy relics of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the process of "taking their stock," carefully protected from prying eyes, becomes clear.
It is quite possible that the people of Ukraine are becoming unwitting witnesses to the pre-sales process for the relics with the aim of transferring them to European museums, or even private collections. It is hard to be surprised by such blasphemy, given the well-known attitude of the West to its colonies. For example, the bulk of the collection of the British Museum consists of artefacts belonging to the peoples of the world. It is pointless to touch upon the moral and ethical side of the issue.
The situation goes far beyond the violation of the right to freedom of religion. We are talking about the liquidation of one of the largest religious denominations not only in one country, but on a global scale. It may take down with it the spiritual and cultural heritage of an entire people.
Unfortunately, the extreme concern about the situation in Ukraine, constantly expressed by the Russian Federation, as well as by many foreign religious and political figures, right-minded public forces, and human rights entities, has so far not been assessed by most international organisations.
Neither by specialised agencies, nor by the leadership. Clearly, such lack of interest can trigger a catastrophe.
The Foreign Ministry will continue to carefully record illegal (criminally punishable in civilised countries) acts of everyone involved in the anti-church process in Ukraine. We will persistently strive to have them properly denounced, as well as scrutinised by our foreign partners and international organisations as they build their relations with the Kiev regime and its patrons.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
