The Committee also considers criticism of the bill to be unfounded.
Illustrative photo: parishioners of the UOC (MP)
The Parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy announces that it is conducting a discrediting campaign against the adoption of the draft law No. 8371 on the ban on the activities of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine.
This was reported on the committee's website .
“The Committee is extremely surprised by the unfounded pseudo-critical comments that have been made recently… by various commentators. These statements create the strong impression that these experts, firstly, did not read the text of the bill before the second reading, and secondly, are trying to evaluate it from a religious perspective, although… the said draft law does not concern religion,” the statement says.
The Committee also considers the criticism of the bill by the State Service for Ethnopolicy and Freedom of Conscience to be unfounded. The Committee recalled that all legislative proposals of the State Service for Ethnopolicy were retained in the text of the bill in the first reading, and a huge number of important amendments by its authorship were taken into account by the second reading.
“The Committee is not surprised and was prepared for a crazy campaign to discredit the law by lobbyists and agents of influence of one of the Ukrainian churches, regarding which there are preliminary stable grounds to believe that it has hidden ties with the “ROC”. Moreover, the Committee considers this campaign itself as a “confession” by the church, which publicly declares the severance of its ties with the “ROC”, but at the same time, for some reason, is afraid of the bill to ban this criminal organization, like the devil fears incense,” the statement says.The Committee noted that all attempts to frighten people's deputies with international pressure are nothing more than information and psychological operations, as confirmed by fellow parliamentarians from Western countries.
“We assure all the “Moscow nightingales” who feed from the palms of the Kremlin and its oligarchs and spread these fakes abroad and in Ukraine that attempts to blackmail Ukrainian politicians only strengthen our desire to bring Bill 8371 to adoption in the second reading and in general,” it is noted in the statement.
More than 140 people's deputies did not sign in support of the bill banning the UOC-MP. Name list
In addition, the committee asked Ukrainian and foreign media to take into account the essence and content of the bill in their materials.
- On October 19, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading bill No. 8371 on the inadmissibility of religious organizations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church from operating in Ukraine.
- On July 23, 2024, a group of people's deputies blocked the Ada rostrum at the plenary session, demanding that this bill be included in the agenda and considered in the second reading. The demand of the people's deputies was not satisfied, and a break was announced in the meeting. Read more in the LB.ua article “Personnel, church, taxes. On pause until the fall.”
- The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience called on the Rada to eliminate a number of shortcomings in the bill before the second reading.