Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law today – Ukraine’s Independence Day from the Soviet Union and two and a half years after the start of Russia’s invasion of the country – banning the country’s Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate.

In his speech, the Ukrainian president estimated that this decision will strengthen the independence of his country. “Orthodox Ukrainians are today taking a step towards their liberation from the demons of Moscow,” he stressed.

According to MP Jaroslav Gelezniak, the new law gives a period of nine months in the parishes of said Church to “sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church,” which supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The law was passed on Tuesday by the Ukrainian parliament and has provoked a reaction from Russia.

According to media reports, the Russian-linked Church still controls about 9,000 parishes in Ukraine, compared to 8,000 to 9,000 parishes controlled by its independent rival.

The Ukrainians “approve”.

Ukraine has been seeking to disengage from Russian intellectual influence since 2014.

This process was accelerated with creation in 2018 once Ukrainian Orthodox Church independent from Moscow and then even more so with the February 2022 launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was openly supported by the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced in May 2022 that it was severing all ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. But the Ukrainian government believes that the Church in question remains de facto dependent on Russia, and criminal investigations are underway against its officials.

According to a poll conducted in 2023 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 66% of Ukrainians support the ban on the Moscow-linked Church.

Besides, 54% of Ukrainians identify with the independent Church and only 4% with the one subject to the Russian Patriarchate, according to a poll conducted in 2022 by the same organization. In the previous year, these percentages were 42% and 18% respectively.

The law making Ukraine a member of the ICC is also in force

At the same time, the Ukrainian president signed another bill, which concerns Kyiv’s approval of the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As a result, Ukraine became a member of the ICC and now hopes the court will punish Russia for alleged war crimes it has committed against it.

The issue is particularly sensitive in the country, as many fear that Ukrainian soldiers fighting against the Russian army will in turn be targeted by the ICC, which is tasked with prosecuting perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.