'Servant of the People' to put UOC banning law to a vote in February

Yevhenia Kravchuk, Deputy Head of the "Servant of the People" faction in the Verkhovna Rada and Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, hopes that by February 2024, the committee will be able to prepare for consideration in the second reading the draft law No. 8371 aimed at prohibiting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. She shared this in a comment to interfax.com.ua.

According to her, work on the anti-church draft law will be one of the priorities for the humanitarian committee of the Verkhovna Rada in the new year.

"In the priorities of the work of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, there will be the refinement of important bills already passed in the first reading," said Kravchuk. "Certainly, a crucial bill for 2024 will be the bill prohibiting religious organizations led and managed from an aggressor country."

The deputy expressed hope that work on amendments to the draft law, numbering over a thousand, will be completed within a month.

"We would like, at least in the committee, to finish work on amendments in January <...> To discuss, consider all amendments for the second reading so that in February <...> the committee could recommend [the draft law for consideration] to the session hall, and <...> the conciliation council will also promptly bring it to a vote," said the deputy committee chair.

As reported by the UOJ, earlier Yevhenia Kravchuk predicted the consideration of draft law No. 8371 in the second reading by the end of 2023.

The UOJ also reported that, according to the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, Mykyta Poturayev, the provisions of draft law No. 8371 will be "enhanced" by the provisions of anti-church projects by MP Mykola Kniazhytsky and SBU head Vasyl Maliuk.