There will not be enough votes in Parliament to repeal the law banning the UOC, as demanded by Russia, - MP

The Ukrainian Parliament will not have enough votes to fulfill Russia’s demand to restore the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This opinion was expressed by Yulia Klymenko, a deputy from the Voice party, noting that the authorities can formally promise anything during peace talks with Russia, but the church issue is unlikely to become one of the main issues in the process of resolving the war. Klymenko said this in an interview with the publication Glavkom.

“The law has been passed, and votes in parliament are needed to change it. I doubt that they will be found. You cannot promise the Russians something that is impossible to accept. Just like territorial concessions, which require changes to the Constitution. These are simply utopian ‘wishes’. The issues of the Russian language and the church are unacceptable to Ukrainian society, and this could actually lead to a revolution. The authorities can informally promise anything, but when a new government comes to power, the situation will change. If we want peace, we need to look for options, but completely surrendering our position means bringing all Russian agents back here,” – Klymenko said.

In addition, the deputy believes that the church issue is unlikely to be the main one during peace talks with Russia. In her opinion, the basis for the settlement will most likely be the issue of territorial concessions.

“Honestly, I don’t believe that the church issue will be the main one in the peace talks. I think there will be three main blocks of issues: territorial concessions, elections and change of power, and military issues – such as the demarcation line and security guarantees. It is more important for Putin to change the government in Ukraine to a more pro-Russian one, which will call itself “strong managers” and deal with some issues of restoration, then this issue will ‘dissolve’ on its own,” – the MP added.

We will remind you that recently, during a meeting with US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted the security of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as one of the priority points of the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.