What to do? Your country is engaged in a war of national survival; the leader of the church in the aggressor state issues statements supporting the attacking army; meanwhile, your intelligence service uncovers evidence that the foreign church is using priests and religious buildings on your territory to aid the foe.
Ukraine’s answer is controversial but perhaps understandable. It has drafted law 8371 to tackle the issue. This would allow the authorities to investigate churches whose managing center is in Russia. It would allow the authorities to ask courts to ban them in extreme cases.
This has caused a backlash in the US, including criticism from the Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican Senator Rand Paul. The television commentator Tucker Carlson has cited the bill as a reason to deny further aid to Ukraine.
Draft law 8371 received its first reading by the parliament in October. The legislation’s primary objective is to ensure religious freedom while safeguarding Ukraine’s national security.
The main organization likely to be affected is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP). Since the full-scale invasion, the number of its followers in Ukraine has dropped significantly, from almost 22% of the population to 1.3%.
The position of the patriarchate’s former mother church (the two are now formally separated), the Russian Orthodox, is clear. Led by Patriarch Kirill, 77, an alleged former KGB agent codenamed Mikhailov who documents suggest started working for the agency 52 years ago, the church stands firmly behind the regime’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
Kirill has told worshippers that death in the Russian armed forces in Ukraine, “washes away all sins” and that Russia has never attacked another country.
Ukrainian authorities say this outlook was mirrored by the UOC MP, which it argues played a role in the preparation for Russia’s invasion. Toward the end of 2022, the National Security and Defense Council imposed sanctions on several of the church’s clergy for spreading pro-Russian narratives, justifying Moscow’s aggression and collaborating with occupying authorities.
Reported incidents included priests refusing to conduct burial services for Ukrainian soldiers, and disclosing information about the positions of Ukrainian forces to the enemy.
The Security Service has searched churches and monasteries of the Moscow Patriarchate and opened more than 60 criminal investigations against priests. Several church leaders face charges of treason, and 19 priests have been stripped of Ukrainian citizenship.
These developments led to a shift in many Ukrainian communities, with some switching to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. These changes were not always peaceful, with cases of priests who had lost the trust of the congregation being forced to vacate church premises.
Some priests took away the ceremonial inventory, while in the Kyiv region, a clergyman hired armed racketeers to prevent the implementation of his congregation’s decision.
At the beginning of 2023 Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, the main Ukrainian religious complex, was reclaimed from the Moscow Patriarchate. Priests were offered the opportunity to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which gained independence from Moscow just six years ago.
Some parishioners were unaware their church belonged to the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate after it refused to implement a 2018 law, supported by the Constitutional Court, which obliged religious organizations to publicize their full names.
In another significant change, the Ukrainian Parliament established December 25 as the date for Christmas, departing from the traditional January 7. Although churches may still hold services on both dates, the move is another symbolic step away from ties with the Moscow Patriarchate and towards Western European norms.
There seems to be a misunderstanding among some in the West about Ukraine’s efforts to extricate itself from Russia, which has been undermining its sovereignty for decades. The proposed law is best seen in that light.
Christians can still go to church. They can still go to an Orthodox church. It’s just that it is now the Orthodox church will be run from Ukraine rather than Russia.
Elena Davlikanova is a Democracy Fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA.) She is an experienced researcher and in 2022 was co-author of ‘The Work of the Ukrainian Parliament in Wartime’ and ‘The War of Narratives: The Image of Ukraine in Media.’
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
War Without End
Russia’s Shadow Warfare
CEPA Forum 2025
Explore CEPA’s flagship event.
