The DESS did not include any parishes of the UOC in the list of organizations whose members are protected from mobilization

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has published a list of legal entities—religious organizations that are critical to the functioning of the economy and ensuring the livelihoods of the population during this special period. These are institutions whose leaders and employees will be exempt from mobilization into the Armed Forces of Ukraine during martial law. It is noteworthy that religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are completely absent from the list, which automatically puts clergy of the UOC who have no official grounds for deferment from military service at risk of forced mobilization. The situation was brought to attention by publicist and deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Andriy Glushchenko.

“It happened just as expected. Today, the DESS published on its website a ‘List of legal entities – religious organizations that are critical to the functioning of the economy and ensuring the livelihoods of the population during a special period. It was signed by Vyacheslav Gorshkov, head of the Department for Religious Affairs. This list includes many thousands of religious organizations (i.e., parishes, communities, monasteries, etc.) of virtually all faiths, denominations, and jurisdictions. Except for one—the UOC. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Hare Krishna communities are now officially recognized as “critical to the economy and the life of the population of Ukraine,” but only the parishes of the UOC are not,” – the publicist noted.

Glushchenko added that such a decision by the DESS is essentially discriminatory. In his opinion, the situation has developed in this way because the state plans to use mobilization as an additional lever of pressure to persuade UOC clergy to transfer to the OCU.

“But most importantly: this means that many thousands of parishes of the UOC, unlike all other religious associations (the OCU, the UGCC, the RCC, Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, Jews, Krishnaites, even neo-pagans), are now directly deprived by the state of the right to exempt their leaders (priests) from mobilization. It is not difficult to guess why this is being done. Do such openly discriminatory actions by the Ukrainian authorities against the clergy of the UOC strengthen or, on the contrary, weaken their loyalty? Do they cause them to feel greater sympathy for the state authorities, or do they strengthen their opposition?”, – added Glushenko.

Earlier, we reported that the recent order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to include religious organizations in the list of critical infrastructure and, as a result, to exempt clergy from military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, could become a trap for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This opinion was expressed by Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Dubinsky, who believes that the state, using the provisions of this order of the Cabinet of Ministers, will blackmail priests of the UOC, persuading them to transfer to the OCU in exchange for exemption from military service.