Bill on banning Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine splits Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party

The pro-presidential Servant of the People faction was an active opponent of the church bill, although it was originally initiated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Besides the expected resistance from the fragments of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life party, active opponents of the initiative were also in the ranks of the Servant of the People. Some of them are current clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who opposed the bill most actively.

Several sources in the faction said that the faction leadership did not show much initiative in promoting Bill 8371.

“At first, Arakhamia (the head of the faction, Davyd Arakhamia - ed.) did not want either to lose votes in the hall - of the ex-OPFL and some of ours - and alienate part of the electorate,“ says one of the MPs from the party.

Both supporters and opponents of the bill actively tried to sway Zelenskyy to their side.

Poroshenko's influence

“The initial narrative was as follows: Zelenskyy initiated the bill, the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscienceтwrote a normal bill, and then Poroshenko got involved, the agency took his side, adopted all these amendments, so we need to return to the first reading version,” said a source close to the president.

Knowing Zelenskyy's critical attitude toward his predecessor in office, opponents of the bill tried to convince the head of state that its adoption would be “Poroshenko's victory.”

“In fact, we gave Poroshenko a pass by delaying this story. If we had voted on everything immediately, without dragging it out for months - and there were votes in the hall - he would not have had this opportunity,” explains the source within the Servant of the People.

In the end, after the draft law blocked the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada on July 23 and the parliament adjourned for a break in plenary, Bankova Street decided that it was necessary to vote for it.

“If the draft law is adopted, it should be presented in such a way that it is 'our victory,'” says a source close to the president.

Banning of Russian church in Ukraine

Ukrainian MPs with placards blocked the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada with a demand to consider a bill banning religious organizations affiliated with Russia.

In October 2023, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading a bill to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and other religious organizations associated with Russia.

In March of this year, the Committee recommended that the Rada support the bill in the second reading. At the time, the deputy chair of the committee, Yevhenia Kravchuk, said that the second reading could take place in May or June.