“Does not contradict the Constitution”: Court rejects Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's petition to review Law No. 3894 for violation of believers' rights

On June 25, 2025, a court hearing was held in Kyiv on a lawsuit filed by the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church demanding that certain provisions of Law No. 3894, aimed at banning the activities of the UOC, be recognized as violating the Constitution of Ukraine. Among other things, the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC tried to prove that the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience does not have sufficient authority and qualifications to establish signs of affiliation of religious organizations with centers located in Russia. This was reported by Glavkom.

It is reported that on June 25, the court considered two applications from the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC at once. Their demands are almost identical: to suspend the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of May 9, 2025, No. 543 “On Approval of the Procedure for Conducting Research on the Presence of Signs of Affiliation of a Religious Organization with a Foreign Religious Organization Whose Activities Are Prohibited in Ukraine,” as well as to prohibit the government from making changes to this document.

In addition, the Church sought to prohibit the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience from conducting investigations into any religious organizations for affiliation with foreign centers. It was expected that the court would prohibit the State Service for Ethnic Policy from investigating the presence of signs of affiliation of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC with a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine, as well as prohibit the publication of interim and final results of these investigations.

All the arguments of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC boiled down to one thing: the actions of the authorities directly contradict the Constitution of Ukraine and numerous decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.

At the same time, after considering two applications from the UOC, the court emphasized that the suspension of a regulatory legal act as a measure to secure a claim is only permissible in cases where there are clear signs of the illegality of this document and a violation of the rights, freedoms, or interests of the person who applied to the court. In both cases, the court concluded that the applications for securing the claim were unfounded.

“The applicant has not provided any relevant and admissible evidence, in particular, that the Law of Ukraine ”On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations» directly contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine and numerous decisions of the ECHR; no evidence was provided that it was recognized as unconstitutional; no decision of the ECHR was provided in the context of the applicant’s claims about the constitutionality of the said Law,» — the court rulings say.

Accordingly, the court denied the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC’s requests to secure the claim.

Earlier, we reported that more than half of Ukrainian citizens do not support interference in the internal affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This is evidenced by the results of a sociological survey conducted by the SOCIS Center in June 2025.