The Ukrainian legislature deemed the law necessary to protect national security and to ensure Ukraine’s liberation from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The draft law follows a decision of the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which, on May 27, had already declared its autocephalous independence from the Russian Orthodox Church and its head, Patriarch Kirill. However, some dioceses, mostly located in the Donbas and the Crimea, disagreed and continued their association with the Moscow Patriarchate.
In November, searches were conducted at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) because it suspected that people might be using the area to hide foreign citizens, sabotage groups, and weapons.
The SBU admitted that, thus far, it has searched 350 buildings belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and investigated the loyalties of 850 people.
Yet, the draft law and the searches surely are examples of repression, discrimination, and intimidation, based on the ground that the members of the Church pray to the same saints as people in Russia.
Similar to World War II?
The repression endured by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reveals the inability or unwillingness of the Ukrainian legislature to distinguish between spiritual belief and organisational independence. This is because membership of the Church is seen as a proxy for identifying enemies of the State.While it is likely that the move will effectively sever the organisational link between the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches, it is unlikely that it will extinguish the spiritual bond between the two religious organisations.
The repression is reminiscent of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II because their Japanese ancestry made them potential enemies of the United States.
In Korematsu v United States, Associate Justice Hugo Black of the Supreme Court, agreeing with the compulsory relocation, wrote that “hardships are part of war, and war is an aggregation of hardships. All citizens alike, both in and out of uniform, feel the impact of war in greater or lesser measure. Citizenship has its responsibilities, as well as its privileges, and, in time of war, the burden is always heavier.”
Limiting Freedoms During War
The draft law also constitutes a violation of Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to which “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”Freedom of religion is a non-derogable right, even in wartime, but it can be limited if it is necessary “to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.”
Similarly, Article 35 of the Ukrainian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion to everyone. However, it also states: “The exercise of this right may be restricted by law only in the interests of protecting public order, the health, and morality of the population, or protecting the rights and freedoms of other persons.”
Although proponents of the draft law might want to rely on this limitation, repression of religion constitutes a potentially dangerous and slippery road to the demise of the rule of law. The tangible tension between the Ukrainian State and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is caused and complicated by the present military and political situation.
He reports that “Ukraine was the most Russian of the non-Russian Soviet Republics.”
The tragedy of Ukraine is that the country does not seem to know where it belongs, to the East or the West.
The Zelenskyy government has embraced a decisively Western approach by applying for NATO Membership and gaining associate membership status of the European Union (EU).
The Preamble to the Ukrainian Constitution was amended on Feb. 7, 2019, to confirm “the European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of the European and Euro-Atlantic course of Ukraine.” In this endeavour, the EU supports Ukraine unreservedly with weapons and logistical support.
But various sections of the Ukrainian population have deep Russian roots going back centuries, specifically its association with the Russian Orthodox Church.
