What did Kyiv's late-December 2018 laws signal on church and memory?
A look back at two measures reported on 22 and 23 December 2018, one on a church's name and one on veterans' status.
What did Ukraine's legislative moves in the days before 24 December 2018 amount to? As reported at the time, two measures drew attention in the run-up to that date, both touching on questions of identity and public memory.
On 22 December 2018, veterans of the UPA, the Polissian Sich and units of the OUN were legally recognised as participants in combat operations. The step gave a formal status to groups of fighters from the past.
On 23 December 2018, President Petro Poroshenko signed a law requiring the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to state in its name its affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The two items were reported on consecutive days, and each addressed a distinct subject: one concerned the legal standing of veterans, the other the public designation of a religious organisation. Taken together, they show how much attention Ukraine's lawmakers and its president were giving to such questions in the last days of 2018.
