DESS cannot start studying UOC statutes for affiliation with ROC, - Victor Yelenskyy

The head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelensky, said that due to bureaucratic inconsistencies in the government, the State Service cannot begin the process of checking religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church. Yelensky said this in a commentary to Glavkom.

“We can only conduct (the study) in a working order, because there is no final decision of the Cabinet of Ministers yet. But, in principle, we can get ready,” — Yelensky said.

Earlier, MP Nikita Poturaev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy and co-author of the law banning the UOC, accused the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption of delaying the implementation of anti-church law No. 3894, aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Poturaev believes that the process of banning the UOC could have been launched long ago, without waiting for the nine-month deadline.