Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, head of the Legal Department of the UOC, said that today there are about 70 decisions of local governments to ban the activities of the canonical Church. He spoke about this during a press conference on the issues of oppression of the UOC, which was held in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on December 15, 2022.

“Such decisions are illegal. They do not comply with the Constitution, they violate the law of Ukraine on the martial law regime. Local authorities have no competence to ban religious organizations. In this case, we advise the clergy to contact law enforcement agencies. Indeed, according to Art. 19 of the Constitution, an official can act only within the framework of legislation,” said Archpriest Alexander.

“The purpose of such bans is to create an information field, as if society is demanding a ban on the UOC. It’s not really like that,” he added.

“When the local authorities ban the ‘Moscow Patriarchy’, they ban who knows, because there is no such thing in Ukraine. There is no such legal entity. But the problem is that the village head or just people take this decision to ban and go to our temple,” said the head of the Legal Department of the UOC.