Putin’s church demands meet cold reception in Ukraine

‘Ukraine must not be forced into asymmetric obligations on the status of the Russian language, culture, the Russian Orthodox Church or participation in international organisations.’

Guaranteeing the rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the official use of the Russian language emerged as one of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s key demands in last week’s talks with US President Donald Trump in Alaska.

Putin told Trump that Ukraine must “guarantee the security of Russian Orthodox churches”, European officials told The New York Times.

These demands received a muted response in Ukraine. The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations (UCCRO), an interfaith body representing Ukraine’s religious groups, said Ukraine should not accept Putin’s demands on the Russian language, culture, and the rights of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) outright, but negotiate on the basis of “reciprocity”.

“Ukraine must not be forced into ‘asymmetric’ obligations concerning the special status of the Russian language, culture, the Russian Orthodox Church, or participation in international organisations,” a UCCRO statement said.

Ukraine’s Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Olena Ivanovska expressed firm disapproval of Putin’s demands, calling them “cynical and unacceptable”. She said the ROC in Ukraine acted as a “weapon of ideological warfare aimed at undermining Ukrainian independence, dividing society, and returning us to colonial status”.

Ivanovska also rejected the demands for securing the official use of the Russian language in Ukraine, calling it a “tool of imperial policy” responsible for destroying Ukrainian culture.

The status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is a thorny issue for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has long demanded that the UOC sever its connections to Moscow.

However, Russia’s insistence on the church and language issues means these are likely to be determined only through direct peace negotiations, bringing into question processes initiated by Ukraine’s State Service on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) – including an ultimatum it issued to the UOC requiring it to cut ties with the Moscow Patriarchate by 24 August.

Last month, the DESS concluded an investigation which found continuing canonical and administrative ties between the Kyiv Metropolis (the UOC’s administrative centre) and Moscow. It ordered the UOC to cut these ties and withdraw its hierarchs from all ROC bodies, and to denounce the ROC’s annexation of UOC eparchies in the occupied territories.

However, the UOC leader Metropolitan Onufry formally rejected the DESS ultimatum last weekend, calling its findings “fictitious” with “no relation to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”.

“The order received by the Metropolis of Kyiv of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is frankly manipulative in its nature and is absolutely far from objectivity and the realities in which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is,” said Metropolitan Onufry in a letter.

In response, the head of the DESS Viktor Yelensky warned that the UOC’s failure to comply risked pushing its believers into open conflict with the state, with the next step being launching a court case to liquidate the Kyiv Metropolis.

Tetiana Derkatch, a Ukrainian religious analyst, told The Tablet that the church issue is “very important to Putin” and could feature in future talks.

“It is unlikely that the Ukrainian authorities will simply agree to such demands from Russia, but, for example, in exchange for the de-occupation of additional Ukrainian territories, this is already a negotiable issue,” she said.

“[Putin’s] maximalist demands are to return all the rights, privileges and temples to the UOC (MP), as well as to dismiss all criminal cases against priests and bishops accused of anti-state activities.”

She warned this could prove impossible if the UOC chooses to protect its current status through the peace talks, as it would have to prove that remained part of the ROC. Since 2022, Metropolitan Onufry has maintained that the UOC has been independent of Moscow.

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