All-Ukrainian Council of Churches supports the ban on religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Federation

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) supported the legislative initiative of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ban the activities of religious organizations associated with the aggressor country. UNN reports with reference to a statement of the AUCCRO.

"We categorically condemn the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become an accomplice to the bloody crimes of the Russian invaders against humanity and which sanctifies weapons of mass destruction and openly declares the need to destroy Ukrainian statehood, culture, identity, and, more recently, Ukrainians themselves.

We reaffirm our statement of April 11, 2023, that partnerships and freedom of religion and their protection by the state are the basis of church-state relations in Ukraine, and no organization - whether religious or secular - that has its center in a country that has committed military aggression against our people and is governed by the aggressor state can operate in Ukraine. We support the legislative initiative of the President of Ukraine to make it impossible for such organizations to operate in our country, which also has broad political and public support," the members of the All-Ukrainian Council said in a statement.

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The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches pointed out that religious rights and freedoms are respected in Ukraine even in the face of a brutal war. Believers, despite certain challenges related to the war, have opportunities to express their religious feelings and beliefs with dignity. However, the main threat to religious freedom in Ukraine is the Russian aggression, as a result of which dozens of clergymen were killed by the occupiers and hundreds of churches and houses of worship were destroyed.

"The Moscow Patriarchate justifies pogroms and restrictions on religious freedom, torture and murder of priests and pastors, and cynically tramples on the Lord's institutions and elementary norms of universal morality.

We are convinced that the course of protecting freedom of religion and spiritual independence, by which we mean not isolation but openness to the high standards of our religious traditions while rejecting manipulation of faith and covering crimes with religion, will help consolidate our society for the sake of our victory and the establishment of a long-awaited just peace," the statement reads.

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As UNN reported, next week the Verkhovna Rada is going to consider in the second reading a bill on the ban of religious organizations associated with the aggressor country.