Yelensky explains why the Constitutional Court has taken up the Church

Viktor Yelensky, the newly appointed head of the State Ethnopolitics Committee, said in an interview with ‘Radio Kultura’ that the law on renaming the UOC had been in force since 2019, but it was ignored and called unconstitutional and anti-democratic. Asked by a journalist why the law had been lying in the Constitutional Court for so long, Yelensky said the authorities did not want the aggravation of the situation.

"A lot of things were overlooked until the large-scale invasion by the Russian Federation began. After that, enormous public discontent started. Every day the State Ethnopolitics Committee receives letters from district councils, from local authorities demanding a ban (of the UOC – Ed.). But banning can only be done by law. That is why now a bill is being developed that, on the one hand, will not allow the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate to function in Ukraine, and, on the other hand, will not burden the conscience of believers of this Church," the official said.

As reported, the head of the UOC Legal Department, Oleksandr Bakhov, said that the decisions of local authorities to ban the Church were illegal. "The purpose of such bans is to create an information field as if the society demands a ban on the UOC. In fact, this is not the case," he added.