Kyiv officials to review petition against banning Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Ukrainian authorities will consider a petition against banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the country, as it has collected the necessary 25,000 signatures.

In the text of the petition, the parishioners were said to urge for resolving the issue of churches in Ukraine through dialogue and the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens, and not by banning the entire UOC, Gazeta.ru reports.

In response to the petition, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal instructed the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience to study the issues raised in the petition and to inform the authors of the petition and the government about the results of its consideration.