Poll: More than 70% of Ukrainians reportedly support banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

According to the latest public opinion poll, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens reportedly support an initiative to legally ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within the country. Approximately 72.6% of respondents view the UOC as an organization that acts as an extension of Russian intelligence services and insist on its complete ban. This was reported by hromadske.ua.

During the presentation of the survey results, organized by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) in collaboration with the Ukrinform news agency, other opinions were also voiced. In particular, 11.6% of survey participants hold the view that government agencies should not interfere in religious matters. At the same time, 6% of those surveyed continue to regard the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a canonical religious institution and oppose the introduction of restrictive measures.

This survey was conducted via telephone interviews, covering 2,007 respondents from all regions under Ukraine’s control. The survey was commissioned by the UINP, and the technical implementation was provided by the “Operational Sociology” association.

It is worth noting that the aforementioned poll results completely disregard a recent report by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, which, in particular, states that despite multifaceted pressure, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with nearly 10,000 parishes, remains the largest religious organization in Ukraine.