Fact Check: Ukraine Banned Orthodox Church in August 2024?

Claim:

In August 2024, Ukraine passed legislation banning the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

Rating:

Mixture ( About this rating? )

What's True:

On Aug. 20, 2024, the Ukrainian Parliament passed (though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not yet signed, as of this writing) legislation that would allow the government to ban the Russian-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However …

What's False:

… the law does not pertain to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the church to which the majority of Ukrainian Christians belong. Claims that Ukraine banned the Orthodox Church entirely or that it outlawed Christianity are false.

In mid-August 2024, a rumor spread on social media that Ukraine passed legislation banning the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. For instance, one X post on the topic read : "Apparently, Ukraine just voted to outlaw the Orthodox Church there. This would be the equivalent of the United States banning Catholicism during WW2 because Italy was controlled by the Axis Powers. Do you still think Ukraine is the good guy?"

(X user @ShaneSchaetzel)

Another X user wrote : "Ukraine has officially banned the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This only makes it officially legal what's already been happening. The law will be enforced within 30 days, any canonical UOC parish that doesn't submit to the state-run OCU will be seized and shut down," while another post, with more than 940,000 views as of this writing, claimed " Zelenskyy has banned the Church in Ukraine."

"Zelensky is preparing to ban not only the Russian Orthodox Church but also the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - so Shabad Shalom, everyone," an Aug. 19, 2024, X post claimed , reaching more than 1.4 million views. The same user wrote on Aug. 20, 2024: "BREAKING: UKRAINE BANS CHRISTIANITY Zelensky's regime has just adopted the law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church," gaining 1.6 million views as of this writing. Similar claims also circulated in Spanish- and German-language posts.

In short, while the Ukrainian Parliament did pass legislation on Aug. 20, 2024, that would allow the government to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church due to its ties to Russia, this law would not affect the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the church to which most Christian Ukrainians belong, nor would it ban Christianity in Ukraine.

Moreover, as of this writing, the bill is still awaiting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's signature. Therefore, we have rated the claim that Ukraine banned the Orthodox Church in August 2024 as a "Mixture" of true and false information.

On Aug. 20, 2024, The New York Times reported "Ukraine's Parliament passed a bill on Tuesday creating a legal path to ban a Russian-aligned branch of the Orthodox church, furthering a long, post-Soviet split between two of the world's largest Orthodox communities."

Similarly, Reuters' article on the topic read : "Ukrainian lawmakers on Tuesday passed a law envisaging a ban on the activities of a Russia-linked branch of the Orthodox church, paving the way for a historic rupture with an institution that Kyiv has accused of complicity in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine." It also underscored that the UOC has historically been affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, as the Russian Orthodox Church is legally known, but it declared its full independence from Moscow in May 2022.

The full name of the in-question draft law No. 8371 is: "Draft Law on Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine." On Oct.19, 2023, the parliament of Ukraine adopted this draft law in the first reading. On Aug. 20, 2024, in a second reading, 265 Ukrainian Parliament members cast their votes in favor, 29 voted against, four were absent and 24 abstained.

While the full text of the draft law was not yet available as of this writing, the BBC News Ukrainian reported "many amendments were made to the document" and "from two pages it grew to 23."

Below you can find the first version of the in-question draft law (we translated it using DeepL Translate, emphasis added):

DRAFT

By the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine

D. SHMYHAL

January 9, 2023

THE LAW OF UKRAINE

On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine decides:

I. To amend the following laws of Ukraine:

1. In the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" (Vidomosti Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrayiny, 1991, No. 25, p. 283, as amended)

1) Article 5 shall be supplemented with a part of the following content:

"The activity of religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence of a religious organization (association) whose governing center (management) is located outside Ukraine in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine is not allowed."

2) in Article 16:

part four shall be supplemented with clause 6 as follows:

"6) in case of detection of other violations of the requirements for the establishment of a religious organization (association) established by the Constitution of Ukraine, this and other laws of Ukraine." to supplement the article after part four with a new part of the following: "In the cases provided for by this Law, the activities of a religious organization may be terminated in court at the request of the central executive body implementing state policy in the field of religion or the prosecutor."
[...]

3) Article 30 shall be supplemented with paragraphs of the following content:

"conducting a religious expert examination of the activities of religious organizations to identify subordination in canonical and organizational matters with the centers of influence of a religious organization (association) whose governing center (management) is located outside Ukraine in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine; for issuing orders to eliminate violations revealed by the results of religious expertise within one month from the date of issuance of such an order;filing a lawsuit with the court to terminate the activities of a religious organization in case of its failure to comply with the orders to eliminate violations identified as a result of religious expertise within the established time limits."

2. In the third paragraph of the second part of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On State Registration of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Organizations" (Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2016, No. 2, p. 17, as amended), the words "entrepreneurs on the basis of documents" shall be replaced with the words "entrepreneurs and legal entities of religious organizations on the basis of documents submitted in paper or electronic form".

II. This Law shall enter into force one month after its publication.

A press release on the website of the Ukraine's Parliament titled "The Parliament adopted in its entirety the Law of Ukraine 'On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations'" explained the purpose of the law (draft on amending some laws of Ukraine regarding the activities of religious organizations in Ukraine No. 8371) was to ban the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church and religious organizations affiliated with it in Ukraine. It underscored that the Russian Orthodox Church is an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda:

With the adoption of the Law, Ukraine takes another step towards protecting its population from terrorist enemy propaganda, calls to violence and genocide spread by the Russian Orthodox Church. We must stop any actions on the part of the Russian Federation to abuse religion and distort Orthodox traditions, with the imposition of criminal narratives. We will remind you that the Russian Orthodox Church unconditionally supports Russia's war against Ukraine.

According to the Law, the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church are not allowed, such organizations are terminated in accordance with the procedure established by law. The list of these organizations is approved by the order of DESS and published on the official website of the service. In addition, the Russian Orthodox Church cannot be the owner or participant of legal entities registered in Ukraine.

An important amendment is the amendment to Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Leasing of State and Communal Property" regarding the prohibition to transfer state or communal property for free use or loan. Now, such a ban will not extend to religious organizations: they will be able to take free use or loan of state or communal property, which is religious, for the purpose of holding religious services and providing other types of religious practice.

Prohibition of propaganda of the ideology of "Russian Peace" is provided for, in particular, the use of religious organizations to promote this ideology is prohibited.

The law enters into force 30 days after its publication, except for the mandate of the CMU and the provisions on amendments to the CAS.

Furthermore, the Ukrainian Parliament's website underscored the "adoption in the second reading of draft law No. 8371 on banning the activities of religious organizations in Ukraine associated with the aggressor country was an important step towards breaking the long-standing relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia in general." It also quoted Yevheniia Kravchuk, the deputy head of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy:

"In fact, this is a law about our spiritual independence. The adopted document places the Russian Orthodox Church as a foreign religious organization outside the law, it will be banned in Ukraine. At the same time, a Ukrainian religious organization related to the Russian Orthodox Church can be banned only through a court. And the law provides a legal procedure, how the state should act, how to reveal the connection with the aggressor country, how much time is given for breaking the connection and action, if there is no such break," [Kravchuk] said.

She specified that after the draft law enters into force, it will be nine months before the first trials can begin regarding those religious organizations that have maintained ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and the aggressor country.

"The connection itself must be proven on the basis of an examination, which will be conducted by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience together with religious experts and a special commission," the deputy informed.

She also emphasized that the draft law would not have had support in the Verkhovna Rada hall if it were not for the unequivocal position of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who clearly declared his support for the idea of Ukraine's spiritual independence. It is also important that absolutely all other denominations, except the UOC MP, supported such a decision and issued a corresponding statement.

A significant majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, but the faith is divided into two main branches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, traditionally linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has been recognized as independent by the global Orthodox hierarchy since 2019 .

A survey conducted in 2019 by three Ukrainian sociological companies indicated the vast majority of Ukrainians belonged to the Orthodox faith (70.7%). Among them, the largest group (43.9%) identified with the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. A further 38.4% of respondents called themselves Orthodox, but did not belong to a specific church. Finally, only 15.2% of Orthodox Ukrainians identified themselves with the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate. Another survey form 2022 indicated that while 15% of Ukrainians considered themselves members of the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate in February 2022, only 4% remained such in March 2022.

For further reading, in April 2023, we investigated video footage from allegedly showing radical supporters of a Ukrainian church burning a Russia-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian village of Novopoltavka. In January 2023, we looked at claims that Zelenskyy's administration advocated "personal economic and restrictive sanctions" be "applied to any Christian caught worshiping in unapproved ways."

Sources:

Dysa, Yuliia, and Olena Harmash. "Ukraine Adopts 'historic' Law to Ban Russia-Linked Minority Church." Reuters, 20 Aug. 2024. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-adopts-law-paving-way-ban-russia-linked-minority-church-2024-08-20/ .

Kramer, Andrew E. "Ukrainian Lawmakers Pass Bill Aiming to Ban Russian-Aligned Church." The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2024. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/20/world/europe/ukraine-orthodox-church-russia.html .

"Ukraine's Parliament Approves Ban on Moscow-Linked Religious Groups. One Church Is Seen as a Target." AP News, 20 Aug. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-parliament-legislative-ban-ukrainian-orthodox-church-539e0f3a6d657277aa4fa93b8ec53505 .

Верховна Рада України На Пленарному Засіданні 20 Серпня Прийняла 10 Законів, Дві Постанови Та Два Законопроекти За Основу. https://www.rada.gov.ua/news/razom/252629.html . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Верховна Рада України Прийняла Законопроект Щодо Діяльності в Україні Релігійних Організацій. https://www.rada.gov.ua/news/razom/242636.html . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Євгенія Кравчук: Будь-Яка Українська Релігійна Організація, Пов'язана з РПЦ, Може Бути Заборонена Виключно Через Суд. https://www.rada.gov.ua/news/razom/252638.html . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Картка Законопроекту - Законотворчість. https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billinfo/Bills/CardByRn?regNum=8371&conv=9 . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

---. https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billinfo/Bills/CardByRn?regNum=8371&conv=9 . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Парламент Прийняв в Цілому Закон України "Про Захист Конституційного Ладу у Сфері Діяльності Релігійних Організацій". https://www.rada.gov.ua/news/razom/252622.html . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

---. https://www.rada.gov.ua/news/razom/252622.html . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

ПРЕС-РЕЛІЗ ЗА РЕЗУЛЬТАТАМИ СОЦІОЛОГІЧНОГО ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ "УКРАЇНА НАПЕРЕДОДНІ ПРЕЗИДЕНТСЬКИХ ВИБОРІВ 2019" – Socis. https://socis.kiev.ua/ua/2019-01/ . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Проект Закону (20.01.2023).Pdf - Законотворчість. https://itd.rada.gov.ua/billinfo/Bills/pubFile/1622350 . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

https://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/radan_gs09/ns_sh?id_fakt=6194&nom_s=11 . Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.