The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate refused to rename their religious organization and indicate in it the affiliation of the Russian Orthodox Church. In particular, the head of the legal department of the UOC, Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, said that the decision of the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of Article 12 of the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” does not oblige the UOC to change its name.

“The Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized the law on renaming as constitutional. At the same time, it should be noted that the Decision of the Constitutional Court does not oblige the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to change its name, it only concerns the compliance of the law on renaming the Constitution of Ukraine,” Bakhov was quoted in the legal department of the UOC.

The archpriest claims that “there is no mention of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the law itself”.

“The statutory documents testify that the UOC is registered in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, its founder is the UOC Cathedral, its religious center, like all governing bodies, is located in Kyiv. All attempts to forcefully apply this law to the UOC will increase cases of violation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion in Ukraine,” Bakhov said..

Therefore, according to him, despite the decision of the Constitutional Court, “it should be noted that today there are no legal grounds for changing the name of religious organizations belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”.

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Recall, on December 27, the Constitutional Court announced a decision by which it found the amendments to Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” to be in accordance with the Constitution, providing for changes in the name of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which should indicate its affiliation to Russia.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted bill No. 5309 four years ago - in December 2018, but it never entered into force, because deputies from the then Opposition Bloc filed an application with the Constitutional Court. In turn, the CCU did not consider this case for four years..

In addition to the obligation to rename, the law established restrictions in the conditions of war on the access of clergy, religious preachers, mentors of religious organizations whose leadership is located in a state that commits acts of aggression against Ukraine, in part, the formation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations of Ukraine in their places of deployment.