Photo: Religion Dispatches

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for “targeted closures” of “Moscow-backed” religious organizations in Ukraine, a more polite way of saying that he wants effectively to ban the Russian Orthodox Church. To be clear, the decree signed by Zelenskyy doesn’t immediately close all parishes and monasteries tied to Moscow (an act that would cause widespread chaos in a country where such parishes and monasteries still account for a majority of Orthodox institutions), but it does open all of them up to potential closure.

Source: Espionage Allegations Against Russian Church Raise Religious Freedom Issue in Ukraine