Oddities in the draft exemption for Ukrainian clergy
Ukrainian clergy got draft exemptions – but not all. We explain why the authorities shrugged off the law and common sense.
The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) approved a list of religious organizations deemed "critical to the functioning of the economy and ensuring vital public services during a special period". Clergy affiliated with these organizations will be eligible for draft exemptions from mobilization into the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The final list includes 7,726 organizations but, unsurprisingly, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was left out.
Religious discrimination
From a legal standpoint, UOC communities are legitimate religious organizations operating in Ukraine under the law. Yes, they are frequently labelled as “collaborators of the aggressor”, “Moscow priests”, or “enemies of the people”. Such accusations, essentially slander, have been voiced by some of the high-ranking officials in the country. Yet the Constitution states that Ukraine is a rule-of-law state, which means that all actions must be carried out within the framework of the law and under due legal procedure.
Ukraine has indeed passed Law No. 3894, commonly referred to as the “Law on UOC ban” (the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations”, dated August 20, 2024). However, the procedures outlined in this law have not yet been applied to UOC communities, so it would be premature to claim that their activities have been legally banned in Ukraine.
DESS has not yet issued any official orders requiring the UOC to eliminate “violations”, nor have courts handed down any rulings prohibiting the Church’s activities. Moreover, the state agency has admitted that it has not completed its review of even a single UOC structure. In its public statement regarding the list of religious organizations eligible for draft exemptions, DESS says: “The State Service for Ethnopolitics is still investigating whether the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the first among thousands of UOC entities, shows any signs of affiliation. Therefore, the examination of compliance with the third criterion – namely, inclusion of a religious organization in the list of those affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church — will proceed gradually, based on the results of the investigation into the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC.”
On what grounds, then, did DESS exclude UOC communities from the draft exemption list? According to the agency, UOC communities have not changed their official names. As DESS stated: “Following verification by the State Tax Service of Ukraine (STSU), DESS received a list of 16,948 religious organizations, from which it further removed those that had not updated their full official name under the provisions of the so-called law on renaming dated December 20, 2018, No. 2662-VIII.”
However, the requirement for religious organizations to change their names was nullified by Law 3894, “On UOC Ban”. This is directly stated in the “Final and Transitional Provisions” of the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations” dated August 20, 2024.
Therefore, this cannot serve as a valid basis for excluding UOC communities from the draft exemption list.
Even if the requirement were still legally binding, and even in the event of non-compliance by UOC communities, this would in no way affect the legal status of their registration or the legality of their operations.
The renaming law itself provides that in the event of refusal to change their name, the charter (statute) of a UOC community loses legal force only with regard to the full official name. All other provisions of the charter, as well as the fact of state registration, remain valid and in effect. The law on renaming explicitly states that if a community refuses to change its official name, only the part of the Statute concerning the full name loses legal force. All other provisions of the Statute, as well as the fact of state registration, remain valid under the law.
This situation clearly demonstrates signs of religious discrimination. It contradicts Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which states: “There shall be no privileges or restrictions based on race, color of skin, political, religious or other beliefs, sex, ethnic or social origin, property status, place of residence, language, or other characteristics.”
Under the Law of Ukraine “On the Principles of Preventing and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine” dated September 6, 2012, discrimination is defined as “a situation in which an individual and/or a group of individuals are restricted in the recognition, realization, or enjoyment of rights and freedoms in any form, on the grounds of [...] religious or other beliefs [...].” Such discrimination is prohibited by law, and “persons found guilty of violating anti-discrimination legislation shall bear civil, administrative, or criminal liability”.
In light of this, both Viktor Yelensky, the head of DESS, and the officials involved in preparing the exemption list have taken actions that may be subject to future legal accountability once Ukraine returns to the rule of law.
The further west, the more "critically important" communities
As previously noted, the draft exemption for clergy is officially tied to their representation of organizations deemed “critically important for the functioning of the economy and ensuring vital public services during a special period”. A brief look at the DESS document shows a steep rise in such structures from eastern to western Ukraine. For example, officials identified 38 such [organizations] in the Kherson region. and 61 in the Chernihiv region. At the same time, Ukraine simply cannot do without 841 religious organizations in the Ternopil region. In the Lviv region, the number of critically important religious organizations is as high as 1,026. As you might have guessed, the problem is that the vast majority of communities in eastern Ukraine belong to the UOC, while in the west of the country, they are practically absent.
In the end, it turns out that, for the state, “western” Ukrainians are worth tens of times more than “eastern” ones.
Odd numbers in the community count
As reported by DESS, they initially took the total number of religious organizations listed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs, and Public Associations as of December 26, 2024. That number amounted to 30,148. Then, organizations registered in temporarily occupied Crimea and separately in Sevastopol, as well as those that had ceased to exist, were excluded from this number, resulting in a total of 26,717 organizations.
Then, this data was sent to the State Tax Service of Ukraine (STSU) to verify whether the religious organization is included in the Register of Non-Profit Institutions and Organizations. After this verification, 16,948 religious organizations remained. Religious organizations located in the temporarily occupied territories of mainland Ukraine, as well as UOC communities (i.e., those that did not change their official name), were left out. As a result, the total was 7,726. Accordingly, the number of UOC communities along with other religious organizations in the temporarily occupied territories amounted to 9,222. Since UOC communities are non-profit, they could not have been excluded by the STSU at the previous count stage.
Interestingly, the same DESS announced that as of January 1, 2025, the number of UOC religious organizations was 10,118.
Thus, in compiling the draft exemption list, DESS estimated the number of UOC communities with reasonable accuracy (with an error margin of about 1,000). However, there are discrepancies regarding the number of OCU and UGCC communities. On February 5, 2025, Serhiy (Epifaniy) Dumenko announced that his organization had 9,000 parishes. Meanwhile, DESS reported 8,511 as of January 1, 2025. The UGCC had 3,681 parishes in Ukraine as of January 1, 2024. Together, they account for approximately 12,200 parishes.
This figure does not correlate with the 7,726 religious organizations granted draft exemption. Moreover, a quick analysis of the reservation list reveals that approximately 40% of these organizations are various Protestant, neo-pagan, and other communities. For instance, the "Religious Community of Native Ukrainian National Faith 'Svit Dazhbozhe'", the "Independent Religious Community – Christian Church (Full Gospel) 'Utrinnia Zoria'", and so on. On reviewing the DESS exemption list, we found 2,140 OCU structures and 2,082 UGCC organizations listed, totaling about 4,200. It's unclear how the 12,200 parishes of the OCU and UGCC fit into this number.
Perhaps, some OCU and UGCC communities were also discriminated against and not included in the reservation list? But then we would have already heard angry statements from the leadership of the OCU and UGCC about plans to conscript their clergy and demands that the list be expanded. However, we hear nothing of the sort. The OCU and UGCC are satisfied.
However, where have the remaining OCU and UGCC parishes gone? Here are some possible explanations for all these inconsistencies:
- The DESS staff is so incompetent that they cannot accurately count the number of religious organizations;
- In reality, the number of active OCU and UGCC communities is several times smaller than claimed by the leaders of these organizations;
- The "lost" organizations are among those excluded by the STSU, i.e., they are profit-making;
- There are some unclear manipulations with the statistics.
There may be some other explanations, but whatever the case, DESS has once again proven that the UOC is the largest religious denomination in Ukraine.
Chaplaincy barred, cannon fodder allowed?
The very idea of mobilizing UOC priests (and even believers) is clearly absurd. If they are accused of being accomplices of the aggressor state, FSB agents, collaborators in cassocks, and so on, how can they be sent to the active army? How can they be given weapons? Won’t they defect to the enemy’s side? Won’t they undermine the front from within? Won’t they open the gates to the attackers?
As it turns out, Ukrainian authorities are not afraid of any of this because they understand that all these accusations are complete nonsense. Why are these allegations aimed at the UOC in the first place?
We have heard so many times that UOC priests must never be allowed to serve as chaplains in the AFU because they supposedly can undermine the Ukrainian army. But apparently, it is okay to send them as regular soldiers. According to the logic of the UOC persecutors, this cannot cause any harm.
The situation was described in the clearest terms by one of the publicists close to the OCU, Tetiana Derkatch. Commenting on the whole absurdity of the presence of UOC priests in the Ukrainian troops, she said on Facebook: “They are unfit (in the army, - Ed.) as chaplains, but they’re apparently fit as cannon fodder.”
Leaving the UOC question aside, how can these comments be justified when referring to Ukrainians defending their Homeland? Are they nothing more than “cannon fodder” to these self-proclaimed patriots?
Conclusions
Here are the brief conclusions that can be drawn from the entire situation around the DESS draft exemption list:
- DESS is not complying with Ukrainian legislation;
- There are clear signs of discrimination on religious ground, which should entail accountability for the responsible parties;
- The statistics on religious communities are very odd, but in any case, they show that the number of UOC parishes significantly exceeds that of the OCU and UGCC combined. Meanwhile, the state completely ignores them.
Our prayers go to the UOC clergy and faithful for spiritual resilience and God’s help in these tough times.
