What Kyiv set in motion on religious organisations linked to Russia
A look back at the measures announced on 2 December 2022 and the questions they raised on the following day.
What had changed in Ukraine's approach to religious organisations with ties to Russia by 3 December 2022? The previous day, 2 December 2022, brought two connected steps from the country's leadership.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree banning religious organisations with links to Russia and imposing personal sanctions on their representatives. He also announced that the government would draft a law banning churches affiliated with Russia. He presented this as necessary to counter Russian government efforts to weaken Ukraine from within.
The same day, as reported at the time, the president submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada that would formally prohibit any activity in Ukraine by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).
Taken together, the decree and the bill marked a move from announcement to legislative procedure. The decree set out sanctions and a ban on organisations tied to Russia, while the bill went to parliament, where the Rada would have to take it up.
On 3 December 2022, the question was therefore procedural: how the bill would move through parliament, and how the decree's sanctions would be applied to individual representatives of the organisations concerned.
