The head of the DESS considers the ban on the UOC necessary in the interests of state security

The head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelensky, stated that banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is necessary in the interests of state security. However, according to the official, if the UOC fulfills all the requirements of Law No. 3894, there will be no need to ban the Church. He stated this in an interview with the publication Ukrinform.

«Never before have there been banned churches in Ukraine. The situation with the ROC (as Yelensky refers to the UOC, ed.) is extraordinary. It requires the Ukrainian state to take extraordinary security measures, which it has not resorted to before. This happens in history. For example, in the United States during the struggle for independence, when the colonies passed laws prohibiting prayer for the King of England, and ultimately forced the Church of England to be called the Episcopal Church in the United States,» — he said.

The official added that if the Ukrainian Orthodox Church nevertheless agrees to comply with the requirements of anti-church law No. 3894, there will be no need to ban the UOC.

«If this is done, the Kyiv Metropolis will continue to operate without hindrance. If not, the DES will have the right to go to court to sue for the termination of this religious organization. The relevant amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, which allow the DESC to do so, came into force at the end of May — nine months after the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations,” — he said.

Earlier, we reported that Lord Peterborough Stuart Jackson, a prominent member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Freedom in the British Parliament, expressed serious concern about possible actions by the Ukrainian authorities to restrict the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.