Metropolitan Theodosius of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has spent the last several years under constant pressure from the Ukrainian secret police, who have detained him on multiple occasions, raided his home and office four times, and issued bogus, politically motivated charges against him. Today he published an opinion article in the Times of London … Read more
On May 3rd, 2024, the lawyers for the Ukrainian Parliament, the Main Legal Department of the Supreme Council of Ukraine (the ‘Legal Department’), provided a legal assessment of Draft Bill 8371(the ‘Law’), a law aiming to ban the religious practices of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (“UOC”). This report on their findings was prepared by Amsterdam … Read more
On 24 April 2024, the Department for External Church Relations received a “Statement in support of Fr. Mykolai Danylevych on his criminal persecution” from Emeritus Professor Dr Thomas Bremer and Professor Dr Regina Elsner (Germany). Below is the text of the Statement. Statement in support of Fr. Mykolai Danylevych on his criminal persecution On April … Read more
The British publication The Tablet is running a story featuring letters from Amsterdam & Partners LLP on the situation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as well as mentions of the white paper. Please see the following excerpt below: Legislation effectively to outlaw the UOC is expected to come before the Ukrainian parliament in mid-January. “There … Read more
Robert Amsterdam has published a new oped on the platform CapX, which is a publication of the British think tank, Centre for Policy Studies. An excerpt follows below: In the case of our client, the Holy Synod, key leaders of the church have been jailed on charges that do not even meet the standards of … Read more
The new white paper published by Amsterdam & Partners LLP regarding Ukraine’s illegal persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) has been featured in a report published in the Sunday Telegraph in London. According to the article, entitled, “Zelensky warned over banning ‘historic institution’,” pressure is mounting on Western leaders to intervene to stop the … Read more
The European Conservative has published an interview with lawyer Robert Amsterdam about his representation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). An excerpt can be read below: Despite the fact that the UOC cut ties with Moscow and its Patriarch Kirill in May 2022, Zelensky’s government has raided churches, arrested priests and other clergy, and in … Read more
The Ukrainian security services on Tuesday raided one of the holiest sites for Orthodox Christians, saying they were scouring a 1,000-year-old monastery in the heart of Kyiv for Russian saboteurs among the clerics and weapons amid the relics, even as pilgrims prayed in the caves below. The hunt for Russian spies at the sprawling Kyiv-Pechersk … Read more
Standing in an old Orthodox church in Antalya with a Bible in one hand and a candle in the other, the Rev. Ioann Koval led one of his first services in Turkey after the Russian Orthodox Church leadership decided to defrock him following his prayer for peace in Ukraine. Last September, when Russia President Vladimir … Read more
The war of aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine, which has received the vocal support of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), led the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to announce in its May 2022 Synod that it was officially severing its ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. Recent probes by the Ukrainian government towards the … Read more