Cabinet of Ministers finally bans UOC priests from being chaplains

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved amendments to the “Regulations on the procedure for issuing a mandate for the right to carry out military chaplaincy activities” within the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the new amendments, the UOC priests are finally prohibited from performing chaplaincy activities in military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported by the permanent representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk.

“Amendments were made to the ‘Regulations on the procedure for issuing a mandate for the right to carry out military chaplaincy activities’ in order to bring it in line with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine dated 21.03.2024 N 3621-IX ‘On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine regarding the provision of the rights of servicemen and policemen to social protection’. Supplemented the list of grounds for the issuance by the State Service of Ukraine on ethno-politics and freedom of conscience of the order to refuse to issue a mandate with a new ground, in particular, the affiliation of a candidate for the post of military chaplain to a religious organization, which is recognized as such, which is part of the structure (is part) of a religious organization, the governing center (management) of which is located in a state recognized as such, which has carried out armed aggression against Ukraine and / or temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine», — it was said

We will remind, earlier the deputy head of the Synodal Department of the UOC on interaction with the armed forces and other military formations Archimandrite Luke (Vinarchuk) said that military chaplaincy appeared in our country thanks to the work in military units more than 200 priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who are now slandered and thrown out of their temples because of the anti-church law.