Head of State Ethnopolitics tells how to ban UOC

In an interview with the Left Bank, Viktor Yelensky, the newly appointed head of the State Ethnic Policy, shared how he sees a possible ban on the UOC.

The state official said that “the decision of the European Court of Human Rights ‘Mikhail Ilyin v. Ukraine’ was recently adopted, which basically allows the state to resort to such a restriction as to name churches, religious organizations in an appropriate way so as not to mislead people who have joined or will join this religious organization.

Yelensky believes that the Church can be banned through the court: "The activities of a particular religious center or religious administration or any particular religious organization can be terminated by courts, which is allowed by the law." At the same time, he sees an unfortunate obstacle – even if the religious center is banned, the parishes that were part of it will still be able to operate by registering as autonomous religious communities.

“That is, they consider themselves Orthodox, but do not submit to any religious center or administration,” the official explained.

According to him, in order to prove the connection between the UOC and the ROC, it is necessary “to conduct an impartial ecclesiastical and economic examination, which should answer the question of whether there is an ecclesiastical and economic relation with this or that center.” Yelensky is convinced that "there are enough specialists in Ukraine, including in economic law, who can conduct this examination, establish whether such a connection exists or not."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Cabinet of Ministers approved Viktor Yelensky for the post of head of the State Ethnopolitics.