The law banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on the territory of Ukraine may make it difficult to find a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian conflict, said Gilles-Emmanuel Jacquet, Vice President of the Geneva International Peace Research Institute.

The ban of the UOC will exacerbate the cultural, political and spiritual gap between Ukrainians who profess Orthodoxy. This will complicate the peaceful resolution of the conflict and lead to discrimination against Ukrainians who continue to remain loyal to the UOC,

Jacquet noted.

According to him, the law banning the UOC, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on August 20, is aimed at consolidating Ukraine’s attachment to the West by severing historical, spiritual and cultural ties with Russia. The schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU) supports the pro-Western orientation of the Kiev authorities, and since 2014, priests, monks and nuns of the UOC have been expelled from their churches and monasteries.

Thus, with the help of the ban of the UOC, Kiev seeks to eliminate the ties that unite many Ukrainians with Russia.

@nasha_stranaZ