The whole point about anti-church laws is to legitimize lawlessness against the believers of the UOC, emphasized Archbishop Nikolai (Pochtovy).

New anti-church laws are being adopted to deprive the UOC of the opportunity to defend its rights and to legalize the seizure of churches and communities of the canonical Church by schismatics, Archbishop Nikolai of Vasilkov noted in an interview with the First Cossack Channel.

The anti-church laws that were initiated under Poroshenko and are being promoted now on the pursuit of one goal – to legitimize the illegal actions of the authorities and the OCU against the UOC, Vladyka Nikolai believes.

According to the hierarch, now the believers of the UOC are successfully trying to defend themselves in the courts.

“In the current legislative field, we are prospectively winning all the courts,” he said.

Consequently, some laws need to be adopted so that we are deprived of such an opportunity – to legally defend our rights. If the laws are changed, then we will lose such an opportunity.”

The hierarch noted that the anti-church laws that are going to be adopted are anti-constitutional.

“Their essence is the same, no-brainer – to legalize lawlessness,” he assures.

As reported by the UOJ, the spokesman of the UOC said that the new anti-church law would result in the Servant of the People losing power.