The Ministry of Culture does not intend to warn any churches other than the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) of illegal religious activity, director of the Ministry of Culture’s Department of Religious Affairs Mykhailo Moshkola said at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada.
Moshkola reiterated that the UGCC had no right to hold prayer services on the Maidan in Kyiv, because it does not have permission from the Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA).
As for the other churches, according to Moshkola, today there is no reason to send them “similar letters.”
In early January the Ministry of Culture appealed to the of head of the UGCC with a request to ensure compliance with the law on the conduct of public prayer services and indicated that priests must have permission to carry out religious activities in places such as Independence Square in Kyiv.
In turn, the head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk said that it was the first time during Ukraine’s independence that there was an official threat to terminate the activity of the religious organizations of the UGCC, and assured that the church is not a part of the political processes.