Russian-linked church faces potential ban in Ukraine as it remains reluctant to officially cut ties with Moscow
Worshipers and priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) pray during a blockade of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, obstructing the passage of a Culture Ministry commission in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 31, 2023. (Oleg Pereverzev / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
War
Three and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church is finally facing its judgment day.
Under a law passed in 2024, the branch — Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate — is supposed to either sever its ties with Russia or be banned.
None had happened so far.
Due to the invasion, the church has faced an escalating crisis due to its affiliation with Russia and some of its priests' collaboration with the Russian authorities. The church has claimed to be independent from Russia and denied any wrongdoing.
Father Serhiy, a chaplain at the competing Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has no ties with Russia, and a top official at the church's charity department, compared the Russian-affiliated church with a dangerous wound.
"If there is a wound that threatens someone's life, it should be amputated," Serhiy told the Kyiv Independent. "Otherwise the person will die."
He argued that "the aggressor state's church should not exist on Ukrainian territory."
However, experts say that banning the church could face legal obstacles.
Russia has used the church card in its botched peace negotiations with Ukraine, trying to preserve its influence in the country by protecting the Russian-affiliated church.
A potential ban could also affect Ukraine's relations with U.S. President Donald Trump's team, whose members have framed Kyiv’s fight with the Russian-controlled church as an attack on Christianity as a whole.
Competing churches
Since the early 1990s, Ukrainian Orthodox believers had been split between the Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Orthodox Church and two independent churches — the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church — both unrecognized as official entities by the international Orthodox churches.
The situation changed in 2018, when the Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and a number of bishops from the Russian church's Ukrainian branch merged into the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople granted recognition and independence (autocephaly) to the new church in 2019.
Since then, 15% of the Russian-linked church's parishes have switched to the independent and officially recognized Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Collaboration with Russia
Following the start of the all-out war, priests from the Russian church's Ukrainian branch have faced accusations of treason and collaboration with Moscow.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in August 2024 that more than 100 priests from the Russian-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church had been investigated in criminal cases. The service said that fifty of them had been charged, and 26 had been convicted.
In one prominent case, Andriy Pavlenko, a priest based in Luhansk Oblast, has been sentenced to 12 years on charges of sharing information on Ukrainian resistance fighters with Russian troops. Subsequently he was swapped as part of a prisoner exchange.
In 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on tycoon Vadym Novynskyi, a major backer of the Russian church in Ukraine, Pavlo, head of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, and seven other Moscow Patriarchate leaders in Ukraine.
The Security Service also said on July 2 that Zelensky had stripped Metropolitan Onufriy, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Orthodox Church, of his Ukrainian citizenship because he had a Russian passport. Onufriy has denied being a Russian citizen.
Commenting on the accusations of collaboration with Russia, Metropolitan Klyment, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said that "the Ukrainian Orthodox Church condemns any illegal activities, those of parishioners included."
"People who consciously violate state law should bear responsibility for it," he told the Kyiv Independent. "Who is and who is not guilty is determined by the Ukrainian judiciary. Politicians and the mass media controlled by them very often resort to manipulations and outright slander, labeling Ukrainian Orthodox Church clergymen and believers as guilty of crime even before any verdicts, instead of a court."
He also condemned the sanctions against his church, saying that they "were imposed without trial, without proving any guilt, even without a legal explanation of the suspicion of this guilt."
Dependence on Russia
Another key issue that has plagued the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” during the war is its ties with Moscow.
In 1990, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was granted "broad autonomy" within the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 2022, the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian church said it would have “full independence” from the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian branch also said that it “condemns the war” and “disagrees with the position of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on the war in Ukraine.”
"It was an act of self-therapy to make it easier for them to live — and also to somewhat mislead Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian state," Kyrylo Hovorun, a Ukrainian theologian affiliated with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, told the Kyiv Independent.
"Formally, they wrote it all up in such a way that it can be very easily reversed. If Moscow captures Ukraine, there won’t even be a need for a new decision to restore the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's status within the Moscow Patriarchate."
Hovorun, who has lectured at U.S. and European universities, was a cleric of the Moscow Patriarchate's Ukrainian Orthodox Church before 2022 but was expelled from it due to his pro-Ukrainian views.
Despite the church's claims, experts say that ties between it and Russia remain.
According to the decisions of the Russian Orthodox Church's 1990 Episcopal Congress, the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is elected by Ukrainian bishops and blessed by the patriarch of Moscow.
The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is also formally a permanent member of the Russian Orthodox Church's synod. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church says, however, that Onufriy has not participated in the synod's meetings during the full-scale invasion.
Hovorun argued that, since 2022, there have been no administrative links between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
However, canonical links between the churches remain, Hovorun added.
"The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is in communion with the global Orthodox world through Moscow," he added.
Moreover, Russia finances the Ukrainian Orthodox Church through Novynsky, Hovorun added.
The Russian Orthodox Church has also maintained that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains an integral part of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Commenting on these statements, Klyment said that the church is independent no matter what Russia says.
"It would be tantamount to recognizing the status of the (occupied) Crimean Peninsula according to the Russian constitution and its spokespeople," he told the Kyiv Independent.
Banning Russian-affiliated groups
Critics of the Russian-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church have argued that it should be banned because it is effectively an arm of the Kremlin during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In August 2024, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law banning the Russian Orthodox Church and religious groups affiliated with Russia.
Under the law, the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience received the right to file a lawsuit to ban Russian-affiliated religious groups nine months after the law came into effect — in May 2025.
The service started an inquiry in May and published its results on July 8, arguing that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is still dependent on Russia.
On July 18, the service instructed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to comply with Ukrainian law and eliminate links with Russia by Aug. 18.
Specifically, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was instructed to issue documents on withdrawing from the Russian Orthodox Church and recognizing the annexations of its dioceses in the occupied territories by the Russian Orthodox Church as illegal. The head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other officials of the church were instructed to resign from the Russian Orthodox Church's governing bodies.
The Russian-affiliated church has described the law as a restriction of religious freedom.
The Ukrainian authorities have denied the accusations.
"We are not banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate — that was never the issue,” Mykyta Poturayev, a lawmaker from Zelensky's Servant of the People party and a major supporter of the law on Russian-affiliated churches, told the Kyiv Independent.
“No, we are simply demanding that they have no ties to Moscow... It is recognized in the resolutions of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe as an extension of Putin’s regime — it’s not a church. We are not banning their existence; we are banning them from being part of that (Russian) non-church.”
Russian church's position
Klyment told the Kyiv Independent that his church's lawyers would study to what extent the service's instructions are in line with Ukrainian laws.
He claimed that the statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church already "conclusively stipulates" the church's independence from Russia.
Commenting on Ukrainian church members' participation in the Russian Orthodox Church's governance bodies, Klyment said that "they themselves did not enter them."
"Their nominal presence there was set forth in documents canceled (by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church) in May 2022," he said. "The current version of the Governance Statute of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not provide for any participation of Ukrainian Orthodox Church members in the activities of Russian Orthodox Church entities."
Klyment also told the Kyiv Independent that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not have to take any action to comply with the law. He argued that it is up to the Russian Orthodox Church to do something.
"The law you mentioned does not provide for any actions on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's part," he said. "It clearly lays down that the determination of a religious community belonging to (the Russian Orthodox Church) is up to information provided in the Russian documents. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, naturally, does not have influence in this situation in any way."
Klyment also said that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "does not recognize the subordination of dioceses in the occupied Ukrainian territories" to the Russian Orthodox Church and that he hopes that "along with the cessation of the unjust war, there will be an opportunity to restore ecclesiastical order in the territories occupied by Russian troops."
Does it need autocephaly?
Although the Ukrainian Orthodox Church claims it's already independent, it has not requested "autocephalous" status — a formal term for independence in canon law.
There is a debate among Orthodox clergy on who can grant autocephaly. Some argue that only the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople can do that but others claim that the Moscow Patriarchate can grant autocephaly as well.
The problem is that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is unlikely to get a tomos (document) on autocephaly (independence) from either Moscow or Constantinople.
Under Orthodox rules, only one independent — or "autocephalous" — church can exist in a specific country.
In 2019, Bartholomew, the patriarch of Constantinople, granted a tomos on autocephaly to Ukraine, and it applied to all Orthodox believers, including those of Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Russian-backed church's full independence under Orthodox rules would imply its merger with the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine but the Moscow-affiliated church has opposed such a move.
Hovorun said that Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, had told him before the full-scale invasion he was considering giving independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Hovorun was a secretary for Kirill in the 2000s before breaking ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
But now — during the full-scale invasion — it's impossible, he argued.
"Moscow definitely won’t grant a tomos because that would mean recognizing Ukraine’s subjecthood," Hovorun added.
However, the Ukrainian authorities are not demanding that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church get a tomos on autocephaly, Poturayev said.
The only thing they need to do is to inform the Russian Orthodox Church that they are independent from now on and sever all remaining ties, he told the Kyiv Independent.
Difficult to implement
Even if the Ukrainian Orthodox Church does not implement all the requirements set by the state and a formal ban is announced, there is a debate on whether such a ban can be implemented at all.
Hovorun argued that the umbrella organization — the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — can be banned but it would be impossible to ban the parishes.
The link between the church's leadership and parishes is canonical, not legal, he said.
Courts can strip individual parishes of their registration but they can exist even without this registration, Hovorun said.
If there are court bans, they can also file appeals with the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, according to Hovorun.
He added that “there are people, including in the President’s Office,” who hope that the situation will serve as a smokescreen, but won’t require actual action.
"I think different solutions are being considered — from simply ignoring this law, saying it doesn’t work or that it has already fulfilled its function, and then just forgetting about it.”
Meanwhile, Klyment argued that the Russian-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church "cannot be legally banned."
"We now already have many parishes without any registration, nor connection with the state," he said. "De jure, they have been closed down; but de facto, the law cannot 'close down' places of worship.”
Poturayev said, however, that it will not be necessary to ban every religious community individually.
He said that it will be enough to ban the umbrella organization. And then individual parishes will have to switch to a legal church or be banned, he added.
