The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to propose to the Verkhovna Rada to ban in Ukraine the activities of religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in russia. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening address to the Ukrainians.
"A meeting of the National Security and Defense Council took place today. A meeting at which we considered numerous facts of connections between individual religious circles (primarily the UOC-MP - OstroV) in Ukraine with the aggressor state", - he said.
The NSDC instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on the impossibility of activities in Ukraine of religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the russian federation.
The State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience was instructed to conduct a religious examination of the Charter on the management of the UOC for the presence of a church-canonical connection with the Moscow Patriarchate and, if necessary, take the measures provided for by law.
In addition, the NSDC instructed to verify the existence of legal grounds and compliance with the conditions for the use of property by religious organizations located on the territory of the National Kyiv-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Preserve.
Sanctions will be imposed against priests who cooperate with russia, their names will be announced publicly.
"With these and other decisions, we guarantee Ukraine’s spiritual independence", - Zelensky stated.