The Ukrainian government said on Aug. 27 that a major branch of Orthodoxy in the country has failed to sever institutional ties with the Moscow‑based Russian Orthodox Church and could be banned under a law passed after Russia's full‑scale invasion.
The move targets one of two rival Orthodox jurisdictions in Ukraine and comes after a year of legislative and administrative action aimed at curbing the influence of religious institutions seen as aligned with Moscow. Parliament approved a law last year banning the Moscow‑based Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and authorized prohibitions on organizations tied to it; a government probe into the Ukrainian Orthodox Church followed.
The church at the center of the government's announcement, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with centuries‑old ties to Moscow, publicly denounced the full‑scale Russian invasion when it began in 2022 and declared its independence from the Moscow patriarchate that year. It reiterated its separation in 2025. Despite those declarations, Kyiv says the church has not taken required legal and administrative steps — including revising its governing documents — to complete a formal rupture from the Russian hierarchy.
Officials say the failure to enact those changes leaves the church subject to the 2024 law that permits restrictions or outright bans on organizations judged to be connected to the Moscow church, which Ukrainian lawmakers said had voiced strong support for Russia's military operations. The government announced the potential ban as part of an ongoing review of the church's institutional ties and compliance with national law.
Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both Ukraine and Russia, and control over ecclesiastical structures has become a cultural and political front in the broader conflict. The two main Orthodox bodies in Ukraine have been the Ukrainian Orthodox Church tied historically to Moscow and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2019. Competing allegiances and questions of canonical authority have intensified since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the 2022 invasion.
Kyiv's actions reflect concerns that religious institutions could be used to exert political influence or justify aggression. Lawmakers who backed the 2024 statute cited statements and positions by the Moscow hierarchy that they said aligned with Russia's wartime narrative. The government has said it will continue its investigation and that any final decision to bar the church would follow legal procedures established by the new law.
Church officials have previously argued that declarations of independence and public condemnations of the invasion demonstrate a break with Moscow. The government, however, has focused on formal, structural changes it says are required to eliminate institutional dependence.
The potential ban marks another instance in which wartime governance in Kyiv has extended into religious life. How a final ruling would affect congregations, ownership of church property and local parish life remains subject to administrative and judicial processes that Kyiv has said will be observed as the investigation proceeds.