The Kremlin continues to weaponize religion, imposing restrictions on Ukraine's sovereignty. This occurs despite ongoing religious repression by Russia within Ukraine and in the occupied territories.
This conclusion was made by analysts at the US Institute for the Study of War, as reported by TrueUA.
The ISW referred to a new statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry accusing the Ukrainian government of destroying the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP), the Kremlin-controlled Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) subordinate element in Ukraine.
The MFA claimed that Russia raised its concerns about Ukraine’s alleged discrimination of the UOC MP to the United States at the Alaska Summit, where the MFA claimed Russia demanded that a peace settlement require Ukraine to repeal its 2024 law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations” and to “restore” the rights of the UOC MP and its practitioners. The MFA asserted that a fair and lasting peace is “impossible” without the fulfillment of these demands.
“The UOC MP is not an independent religious organization but rather an extension of the Russian state and an instrument of Russian hybrid warfare,” the analysts emphasized.
They added that the UOC-MP provided material support for Russia's initial invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, and Russian soldiers used UOC-MP churches as military storage depots, garrisons, field hospitals, and even fighting positions during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine's 2024 law on religious organizations bans those tied to the Russian state, including the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It does not prohibit Orthodox Christianity in Ukraine.
Experts clarified that Russia, in contrast, passed the 2016 “Yarovaya Law,” requiring all religious organizations and churches in Russia to register with the Russian government. The Russian government refuses to register undesirable religious organizations it seeks to suppress and has used the law to persecute several religious minorities.
"Russia has applied these repressive practices to its occupation of Ukraine since 2014. Russian demands that Ukraine change its law on the ROC aim to restore the UOC MP as the Kremlin’s subversive arm in Ukraine and to dictate limits on Ukraine’s sovereignty and ability to create its own legislation," the Institute for the Study of War concluded.