Two laws on church and memory: what Kyiv's late-December 2018 record shows
A look back at two measures that reached the statute book in the days before 25 December 2018, on church naming and veteran status.
What did Ukraine's legislative agenda look like on 25 December 2018? Two measures, both reported in the preceding days, stood out for the way they touched questions of religion and historical memory.
On 22 December 2018, veterans of the UPA, the Polissian Sich and units of the OUN were legislatively recognised as participants in hostilities. The step placed these groups within the legal category of combatants.
On 23 December 2018, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, signed a law requiring the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to state in its name its affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Taken together, the two measures were reported within a span of two days. Each concerned a matter of public identity: one the legal standing of wartime formations' veterans, the other how a major church had to describe itself in its official name.
