More than 60 MPs from the Servant of the People party have not yet signed in support of the bill banning the UOC-MP and do not intend to support it in the second reading. LB.ua has learned this from its own sources.
According to the updated list of signatories, they include Zhan Belenyuk, Yevhen Bragar, Maksym Buzhanskyy, Danylo Hetmantsev, Pavlo Halimon, Heorhiy Mazurashu, Yuriy Koryavchenkov, Serhiy Kalchenko, Oksana Dmitriyeva, Yuliya Yatsyk (who recently left the SP faction), Maksym Pavlyuk, Artem Kultenko, Nataliya Loktionova, Maksym Perebyynis, Marharyta Shol, Pavlo Yakymenko, and others.
More than 30 more "servants" are still hesitating to support the ban on the UOC-MP, including the head of the faction Davyd Arakhamiya, the head of the parliamentary committee on law enforcement Serhiy Ionushas, MPs Oleksandr Kachura, Anna Purtova, Andriy Klochko, Vyacheslav Medyanyk, Oleh Seminskyy, Yuliya Hryshyna, Oleksiy Kuznetsov, Oleksiy Ustenko, Ihor Vasylyev, and others.
In addition, according to sources, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, is actively collecting signatures against the adoption of the draft law. And there is a certain number of "servants" who will definitely not vote.
At the same time, as LB.ua has learned, last week the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy heard comments from Viktor Yelenskyy, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (SEFC), on the current version of the bill from churches of various denominations, including Protestants, and made appropriate amendments. The SEFC has now supported the updated version of the draft law.
Instead, about 70 MPs (including members of the European Solidarity, Voice, and Servant of the People parties), according to LB.ua sources, have issued an ultimatum to the leadership of the Servant of the People and the Verkhovna Rada: if the bill on the UOC-MP is not on the agenda next week, they will not vote for anything other than the extension of martial law.
According to LB.ua, the bill managed to collect the required 226 votes for the second reading, but more votes are needed "for safety net".
What is known about the ban on the UOC-MP
- The draft law "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Activities of Religious Organisations in Ukraine" (No. 8371), which bans the UOC-MP, was voted in the first reading in October 2023.
- A year earlier (on 1 December 2022), President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted a decision of the National Security and Defence Council to ban the activities of religious organisations affiliated with centres of influence in Russia. The preparation and consideration of the relevant bill took almost a year. It met with the greatest resistance from MPs of the Platform for Life and Peace and Restoration of Ukraine (formerly and currently banned by OPFL) and the Servant of the People.
- The Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of the Verkhovna Rada unanimously recommended that the parliament support in the second reading and in general the draft law 8371, which would ban the activities of the UOC (MP) in Ukraine.
- Currently, law enforcement officers have opened about 70 criminal proceedings against representatives of the UOC (MP), including 16 against metropolitans. The crimes include 20 cases of high treason and collaboration. 26 were notified of suspicion, and 19 received court sentences.
- At least four priests of the UOC-MP Ukraine were exchanged for prisoners. In particular, the head of the Tulchyn Diocese of the UOC (MP), Ionafan Anatoliy Yeleckykh, the rector of St George's Church of the UOC (MP) in Yampil, Sumy Region, Mykola Zakroyets, the rector of St John the Merciful Church of the Dnipro Diocese of the UOC (MP), Oleksandr Lunyegov, and the rector of the Lysychansk St Tikhvin Church of the UOC (MP), Andriy Pavlenko.