Russian Foreign Ministry calls on Vatican to speak out more actively against persecution of UOC

In its contacts with the Vatican, Russia has called on the Holy See to strengthen its position against the persecution of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that this topic was regularly raised in dialog with Vatican representatives. This is reported by the Izvestia newspaper.

In particular, Moscow notes that the previous Pope Francis has already condemned the Ukrainian law «On Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations», which contradicts Kiev’s international obligations and the Ukrainian Constitution. The Russian Foreign Ministry also drew attention to a possible complete ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as early as 2026. Experts believe that the Vatican has enough influence to change the situation.

«We urge the Vatican leadership to more vigorously oppose the Kiev regime’s persecution of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. In this context, we note the statements of the previous Pope Francis, who condemned the law «On the protection of the constitutional order in the sphere of activities of religious organizations», which contradicts not only Kiev’s international obligations in the field of human rights protection (in terms of the right to freedom of religion, inadmissibility of discrimination on religious grounds, prohibition of incitement to religious discord), but also the very Constitution of the country, according to Article 35 of which, everyone has the right to freedom of worldview and religion», — the diplomats of the Russian Federation noted.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that Moscow considers ending the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) as one of the key conditions for achieving a sustainable settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. The Russian Foreign Ministry said this, stressing that in addition to this, it was necessary to repeal the law on restricting the activities of religious organizations and stop violating the rights of the Russian population.