I do not think that it will have an immediate effect, - political scientist about the law on the ban of the UOC

Ukrainian political analyst Valeriy Honcharuk believes that the law on banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was adopted the previous day, will not have an immediate effect and its implementation will face difficulties. He told the Gazeta.ua news and analysis website about this.

«I don’t think it (the law, — ed.) will have an instant effect. There will be many problems with parishes and property. Because the latter is often written down on private individuals. The second question — this is only the first reading. We do not know what will be the corrections for the second», — said Goncharuk.

In addition, Honcharuk believes that the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church should be restricted carefully and gradually so as not to irritate the West.

«The state should use laws that would little by little make it impossible for the Russian church to exist on convenient terms. Because all their premises were heated at a discounted price, the land in the lease was also cheap. In this respect it was possible to work for the ROC to exist on market conditions. There is a part of people who are still an active flock. They have a Russian core and live in the informational Russian world. They are often aggressive and it will be impossible to convince them. There are questions — what to do with priests. It is impossible to transfer them to VCU simply because they can be agents of Russia. We need to act according to the law. And there have already been cases when the Russian Orthodox Church was banned locally and churches were transferred to the RCU. But it is important to remember that this is a sensitive issue for the West», — Goncharuk emphasized.

We shall remind you that earlier Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinskyy said that the draft law on banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would never be adopted finally.