Ukraine’s MFA disagrees with UN report on ‘discrimination’ against Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has called on the UN’s Human Rights Office to "refrain from unbalanced political assessments" following a report on recent crackdown against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

In its report published at the end of last week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that searches on the premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "may be discriminatory".

"Ukraine is a democratic state in which freedom of religion is guaranteed. However, freedom is not the same as the right to engage in activities that undermine national security," Oleg Nokolenko, the spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement on Monday.

"We call on OHCHR to refrain from unbalanced political assessments and base its reports on facts," he added.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has long been suspected of abetting Russia’s war efforts, in particular due to its affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Searches of some of its members, carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine, revealed propaganda literature claiming that Ukraine and Russia are ‘one people’. In addition, a number of priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were exposed as Russian agents helping locate targets for missile strikes.

The latest conflict between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the government in Ukraine revolves around the Kyiv Cave Monastery, which has long been used by the church as the Holy Dormition Monastery.

Earlier this month, the monastery was ordered to vacate the territory of the Kyiv Cave Monastery by 29 March on the grounds that the lease agreement is illegal and has been violated.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church claims that there is no legal justification for the order and says it does not intend to leave.