The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has reviewed the 41st periodic report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published on December 31, 2024.

We reject the UN’s conclusions on the amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations" as a distortion of reality.

We reiterate that the law mentioned in the report does not provide for the prohibition of any of the churches that exist in Ukraine. It merely prevents religious organizations in Ukraine from being subordinated to governing centres located in a state that has carried out or is carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupying part of its territory, as well as religious organizations that supportaggression against Ukraine.

We remind the UN that Russia is consistently using religion as a weapon in its war of aggression against Ukraine. The Russian state, through the Russian Orthodox Churchwhich it controls, is sanctifying the atrocities against the Ukrainians and praising the criminals who are committing them.

In this context, the Ukrainian state is obliged to protect its citizens from the destructive influence of the aggressor state, including by using religious organizations, which in the Russian Federation are merged with the state and have explicitly declared their aim to destroy Ukrainian statehood, culture, and identity.

The law pursues a legitimate aim, is necessary in a democratic society, provides for a democratic procedure in which the court has the final say; is the least burdensome, as it does not impose a burden on the conscience of believers, but only relieves them from the pressure exerted by the Russian Orthodox Church, which, as the PACE resolution emphasized, “represents an ideological extension of the criminal regime”. 

We remind the UN that it is Russia that is committing numerous crimes against religious freedom during its war of aggression against Ukraine, notably the deliberate killing of worshippers and religious leaders, the destruction of religious buildings and holy sites throughout Ukraine, and the persecution of non-Russian Orthodox religious communities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

We expect that the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission will continue to provide objective assessments of the actual situation on freedom of religion in Ukraine in its reports and will persist in documenting Russian crimes against Ukrainian believers, religious communities and leaders, as well as church property.