On January 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of Ukraine returned a lawsuit filed by the representative of the Holy Assumption Kiev-Pechersk Lavra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, lawyer Nikita Chekman, against President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The lawyer demanded to partially cancel Presidential Decree No. 820 “On Decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of December 1, 2022 “On Certain Aspects of the Activities of Religious Organizations in Ukraine and the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)”. This is reported by “GLAVCOM”.

It is about President Zelensky’s instruction to the National Security Council and the Cabinet of Ministers to develop a bill on the impossibility of activity in Ukraine of religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation, as well as to ensure the verification of religious organizations using the property on the territory of the National Kyiv-Pechersk historical and cultural reserve; about the instruction of the National Security Council to the State Service of Ukraine on ethno-politics and freedom of conscience to conduct a religious examination of the Statute on the governance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church for the presence of church-canonical and religious organizations.

The Supreme Court accused Archpriest Nikita Chekman (Lavra’s lawyer) of missing the deadline for filing a lawsuit with the court, because according to the law, presidential decrees can be appealed within six months “from the day when a person learned or should have learned about the violation of his rights, freedoms or interests.”

“It should be noted that the receipt of a response to the lawyer’s request, which the plaintiff’s representative is trying to interpret as an event with the occurrence of which the plaintiff learned (could have learned) about the violation of his rights caused by the issuance of Decree No. 820, can not be a reason to change ( or replace) the existing in Ukraine order to bring to the attention of the acts of the head of state”, – noted in the Supreme Court.

It is worth noting that international human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized the Ukrainian authorities over the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. We shall remind you that the head of the international human rights company Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Robert Amsterdam, who represents the legal interests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said that the ban on the UOC contradicts international law and the interests of Ukraine.