Austrian Analysts Report Systematic Persecution of the UOC in Ukraine

In a recent publication by the Austrian think tank ABC Political Studies, experts highlighted a long-term and systematic campaign of pressure by the Ukrainian government against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). Despite the ongoing persecution, the UOC remains one of the largest religious communities in the country. The statement was published on the center’s official website.

According to the report, despite years of pressure from state institutions, the UOC continues to unite millions of believers — both within Ukraine and throughout the diaspora abroad.

The analysts point to concrete actions by Ukrainian authorities, including the revocation of citizenship of Metropolitan Onuphry, the imposition of personal sanctions, and criminal cases initiated against prominent church figures such as Vadym Novynskyi. Several bishops and priests have been imprisoned — an unprecedented situation in the country’s modern history, as the report emphasizes.

The authors also note that international interventions, including attempts by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, have not changed the Ukrainian government’s position toward the Church, which remains unchanged.

According to the analysis, this situation is especially telling considering that back in 2019, around 95% of UOC believers voted for Volodymyr Zelensky, seeing him as an alternative to the anti-church policies of the previous administration.

Earlier, it was reported that OCU lobbyist and non-staff expert of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) Andriy Smyrnov believes that the leadership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not comply with the demands imposed under the anti-church draft law No. 3894. According to him, the Primate of the UOC will try to buy time and delay any decision until the war ends, after which the Church’s future status will be determined.