At the UN theological conference, European theologians noted violations against the UOC “by democratic Ukraine.”

On February 5, 2024, at the UN meeting dedicated to harmonious interfaith relations, a theological consultation was held on state-confessional relations in Ukraine. In an event organized by the Latvian resource Baznica.Info and the St. Maynard was attended by theologians and experts from Germany, Switzerland, France, and Latvia. At the start of the consultation, participants condemned the war against Ukraine. At the same time, they stated that military aggression “cannot serve as a justification for violations by democratic Ukraine.” “Many people call this war a war of authoritarianism against democracy. And it is important that it ends with the victory of democracy,” the moderator said. Belarusian Orthodox human rights activist Natalya Vasilevich, now living in Germany, noted in her speech that restrictions on freedom of conscience cannot be of a discriminatory nature. “With regard to freedom of religion, state security is not such a legitimate goal – this is specifically stated in the General Comment of the Human Rights Committee No. 22 on Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Vasilevich noted. According to her, freedom of speech allows you to speak critically about a particular religion. However, if hate speech is used by officials, if it is done systematically and leads to acts of violence, the state has an obligation to respond to such statements. Vasilevich noted that the Ukrainian authorities are at a dead end in relation to the UOC, since there are concerns about repression of this denomination by Western partners, on whose support Ukraine, which is in a difficult situation of war, depends. Master of Theology, member of the administrative council of the Vicariate of the Gallic Metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Justina Panina (France), commenting on the conflicts in Ukraine, drew attention to the experience of Orthodox communities in France. She said that “fixed membership with mandatory membership fees does not eliminate all possible problems, but it provides a much more transparent system when voting on jurisdictional changes.” According to Panina, at least a partial introduction of such a system could provide greater security for the Orthodox communities of the UOC from raider attacks. Sociologist and publicist Nikolai Mitrokhin (Germany) noted that there are no independent monitoring of the religious situation in Ukraine. According to him, during transitions there are many examples of manipulation in order to distort the voting results. “There are certainly cases of the majority of community members moving from one church to another, but they are an absolute minority and they are not disputed by their former church. However, most cases of “transition” mean either a split in the previous communities, often accompanied by disputes over who will get the temple, or active pressure from external forces on communities (primarily local administrations and activists of socio-political organizations that were not previously seen in the active profession of faith and membership in the community), or the direct confiscation of churches and parish property from the “wrong” church in favor of the “national” church by administrative or outright illegal methods, with the use of direct violence. Moreover, this property is not always used in the future for religious purposes. Or all this together,” Mitrokhin said. At the same time, he noted that for “society” and “abroad”, supporters of the national church in all cases describe such situations as a “transition” – completely discrediting this term. In fact, many (if not most) of the “transitioned” congregations remain and hold regular services because the vast majority of the clergy refuse to “transition.” The meeting participants stated that the change in religious policy is in the interests of the Ukrainian leadership, as it removes a number of questions from the European Christian community and deprives Moscow of the opportunity to use the religious factor in its interests, including to weaken support for Ukraine from Europe and the United States. According to Natalya Vasilevich, in the situation with the UOC, the Ukrainian government has driven itself into a dead end.