Kiev, 20 August 2024 (dpa/MIA) - Ukrainian lawmakers voted on Tuesday by a large majority to ban the Russian-linked Orthodox Church.

According to lawmakers, the bill received a broad majority in the parliament, or Rada, in Kiev at the second reading. Of 322 lawmakers present, 265 voted in favour of the law.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova sharply condemned the ban. "The aim is to destroy the deeply canonical, true Orthodoxy," she said.

In Ukraine's fragmented religious landscape, around 10,000 parishes remain under the influence of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The ban is justified by the Moscow Patriarchate's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the Ukrainian branch of the Church accused of endorsing crimes against its own people.

Officially, the law aims to protect national security and religious freedom. President Volodymyr Zelensky must now sign the bill for it to become law.

The law will take effect 30 days after its publication, giving individual parishes nine months to sever ties with Moscow, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Another lawmaker, Roman Lozynsky, wrote on Facebook, "Today we have embarked on the inevitable path of cleaning up the Kremlin's spy network, which has been hiding behind the mask of a religious organization for decades, from within."

While the law was being debated, there were also warnings from Ukraine's Western partners that the ban should not deepen the religious divide in Ukraine.

For centuries, Russia and much of Ukraine formed a unified church space that belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate. Since gaining national independence, Ukraine has also sought to achieve church independence.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine was established in 2018 when Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians, officially recognized it and granted it independence from Moscow's authority.

In response to Russia's invasion, the Moscow-affiliated church in Ukraine formally declared its separation from Russia in May 2022, although it continues to acknowledge the Moscow Patriarch.

Photo: EPA