The government may sabotage the implementation of the law on banning the UOC, - MP Aryev

European Solidarity MP Volodymyr Aryev believes that the government may sabotage the implementation of Law No. 8371, which bans the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Aryev is convinced that if the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience is not strengthened with professional lawyers, the implementation of the law will be delayed due to massive litigation. He said this on the air of Pryamyy TV channel.

“It is good that we celebrated the adoption of the law, now we will have to direct all our efforts to monitor its implementation. Whether the FSB’s religious department in Ukraine will really sever ties with Moscow depends on the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience. It now has absolutely all the responsibility for ensuring that this law is implemented,” – Ariev noted.

The MP added that there is already a practice in Ukraine when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church ignored the implementation of the law adopted in relation to it. We are talking about the so-called “law on renaming,” which required the authorities to indicate in the name of the UOC communities their affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.

“For example, the law that the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate was renamed the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine was sabotaged by the Ministry of Justice for all five years. And if in this case we see that there are many opportunities to appeal the decision of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, as the law itself provides, then now the SESC has only one lawyer, and there will be thousands of lawsuits when these nine months are up. Here, either the state finances the appropriate legal support for SSERF, or SSERF engages lawyers on a voluntary basis to represent the state in courts against the restoration of the Moscow church. Therefore, in this case, there is still a lot of work to be done,” – the MP explained.

Earlier, MPs Yevhenia Kravchuk and Mykyta Poturaiev commented on the possibility of the activity of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the event of their deregistration in connection with the anti-church law No. 8371 adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. The MPs unanimously stated that the communities would allegedly be able to function without registration.