Ukraine MPs vote to ban Russia-linked Orthodox Church

Ukraine's parliament voted Tuesday to ban the Russian-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a move Kyiv says strengthens its independence as the country cuts ties with institutions it considers aligned with Moscow.

Kyiv has been trying to curb spiritual links with Russia for years -- a process accelerated by Moscow's 2022 invasion, which the powerful Russian Orthodox Church endorsed.

A majority of Ukrainian lawmakers approved the bill outlawing religious organisations linked with Russia, which will mostly affect the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

Zelensky said the ban would boost his country's "spiritual independence" and MPs hailed the bill as historic.

Russia condemned the move, which its church called "illegal."

The Russian foreign ministry condemned the decision as a "powerful blow against the whole of Orthodoxy".

The Russian church has been furious over a 2019 schism that resulted in the creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, spiritually loyal to Moscow's Istanbul-based rival Patriarch Bartholomew.

Zelensky, who still needs to sign the bill for it to come into force, said he will be talking to Bartholomew's representatives in the coming days.

It may take years to implement the ban, causing some dismay among followers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Moscow-backed church in Ukraine officially broke ties with its Russian counterpart in 2022, but some lawmakers have accused its clerics of collaborating with Russia.

Ukraine's SBU security service told the Suspilne news outlet that "criminal proceedings have been opened against more than 100 clergy" from the Moscow-backed church since the start of the offensive and 26 have been sentenced, without specifying the charges.

- 'We just come and pray' -

Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida condemned the vote as "an unlawful act that is the grossest violation of the basic principles of freedom of conscience and human rights".

Metropolitan Klyment, spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told Suspilne it has "always acted within the limits of the law" and would seek to "defend the fundamental constitutional right to freedom of conscience and religious belief".

In Kyiv, believers were praying outside the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, where the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was formerly based.

"There's no politics here. We just come and pray for our children and our loved ones... I've never seen any KGB agents," said 56-year-old Svetlana, who declined to give her surname, referring to allegations of сollaboration with security services.

In a lilac dress and matching headscarf, Svetlana said she had been baptised and married in the church and worried about its potential full closure.

"If they close, people will still pray in the streets, maybe we'll put up tents, there will be prayers anyway," Svetlana said.

- 'Everything is political' -

The schism between Ukrainian and Russian-linked Churches was triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists in the east.

The Istanbul-based head of the Eastern Orthodox Church granted a breakaway wing, called the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), autocephaly -- religious independence -- from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019.

The split has impacted churchgoing in Ukraine.

In the OCU-affiliated part of the Lavra monastery, 21-year-old Igor said: "Everything is political. There can be no such thing as art, sports, or even religion outside politics."

"I actually totally support this ban," he said, accusing the Russian Orthodox Church of being a Kremlin agent that "has metastasized so much that we will be fighting it for decades".

The bill was welcomed by many Ukrainian politicians.

"There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine," Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said on Telegram.