Country

Ukraine

Also Known As Ukrainian

Europe

Ukraine received Christianity from Byzantium in 988 through the baptism of Kievan Rus under Vladimir the Great, an event both Ukraine and Russia claim as foundational to their own national religious history, and the country today is majority Eastern Orthodox, split between churches with different degrees of historical independence from Moscow, a split sharpened by the war beginning in 2014 and intensifying after 2022. Western Ukraine has a significant Greek Catholic population, an Eastern rite church in communion with Rome that survived decades of Soviet suppression underground. Ukraine was also historically home to one of Europe's largest Jewish populations, including major centers of Hasidic Judaism such as Uman, the burial place of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and still a major site of Jewish pilgrimage today. The relationship between Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox church structures remains an actively contested and unsettled matter that the atlas notes rather than resolves.

Facts

Law and State

Establishment Status

No Establishment 3

Article 35 of Ukraine's 1996 constitution separates church and religious organisations from the state and bars the state from recognising any religion as mandatory; a 2024 law banning religious organisations affiliated with or controlled from Russia, aimed at the historically Moscow linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is framed by Ukraine's government as a wartime security measure rather than a change to that constitutional separation.

Apostasy or Blasphemy Law

Article 161 of Ukraine's Criminal Code punishes willful acts that incite religious enmity or hatred, humiliate national honor and dignity, or insult citizens' feelings regarding their religious convictions, with a fine of 200 to 500 non-taxable minimum incomes or up to three years' imprisonment, with or without a bar on holding certain positions. 4

Registration or Recognition Regime

The 1991 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations requires a religious organization with more than ten adult members to register its statute, either as a local or a national body, to gain status as a juridical entity able to hold property and enter contracts in its own name; the state's religious affairs authority administers the process. The law has stood alongside recurring reports that minority and nontraditional communities face more difficulty than established ones in securing registration and property locally, an implementation gap distinct from the law's own text. 4

Ban or Official Watchlist

Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted 265 to 29 on 20 August 2024 to pass a law enabling the government to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate over its historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, which Kyiv considers compromised by the church's stance toward the 2022 invasion despite the Ukrainian branch's own claim to have broken with Moscow. President Zelensky signed the law on Ukraine's Independence Day, giving Moscow Patriarchate parishes nine months to sever ties with their Moscow-based mother church or face closure. This is a domestic ban rather than a foreign government designation. 5

Government type (class)

Semi-presidential republic 2

Disputed

Legal Status

A 2024 law bans religious organizations affiliated with or controlled from Russia, aimed at the historically Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church; the measure is framed by Ukraine's government as a wartime security necessity and contested internationally as religious persecution. 3

Ukraine's parliament passed a law in 2024 banning religious organisations affiliated with or controlled from Russia, aimed specifically at the historically Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which had claimed independence from the Russian Orthodox Church after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 but which Ukrainian authorities and a rival, already-independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church regard as not having genuinely severed its practical and canonical ties to Moscow. Ukraine's government frames the 2024 law as a wartime national security measure, citing documented cases of individual clergy within the targeted church acting as informants or otherwise supporting Russian military and intelligence activity during the ongoing invasion. The targeted church disputes this characterisation and, along with international religious freedom observers, frames the measure as religious persecution targeting an entire church body for the wartime conduct of some individuals within it. Assessing proportionality depends on an ongoing security situation rather than a fixed set of past facts.

Demographics

Religious Composition

About two-thirds Orthodox Christian, split between the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (independent since 2019) and the historically Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church; significant Greek Catholic minority in western Ukraine; smaller Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1

Government

Capital

Kyiv (Kiev is the transliteration from Russian) 2

Government Type

semi-presidential republic 2

Sovereignty Status

Sovereign UN member state 2

Established Year

1991 2

24 August 1991 (from the Soviet Union); notable earlier dates: ca. 982 (VOLODYMYR I consolidates Kyivan Rus); 1199 (Principality (later Kingdom) of Ruthenia formed); 1648 (establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate); 22 January 1918 (from Soviet Russia)

Geography

Latitude

48.4 degrees north 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Longitude

31.2 degrees east 2

Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.

Location

Learn More

Religion and History in Ukraine

Ukraine is majority Orthodox Christian, with most estimates including Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020 placing Orthodox adherents at around two-thirds of the population, split between the newly independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 2019, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, historically under the Moscow Patriarchate though it declared greater independence after Russia's 2022 invasion, alongside a significant Greek Catholic minority concentrated in western Ukraine and smaller Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities.

Kyiv, not Moscow, was the original seat of Rus Orthodox Christianity following Prince Vladimir's 988 CE conversion, a shared origin both Russian and Ukrainian national narratives claim as foundational, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which retains Eastern Orthodox liturgy and married clergy while recognizing papal authority, emerged from the 1596 Union of Brest and has served historically as a marker of western Ukrainian and Galician identity distinct from the Russian-oriented east. Ukraine's prewar Jewish population, once one of the largest in Europe and the birthplace of Hasidism, particularly around Uman and Medzhybizh, was devastated by the Holocaust and earlier pogroms, though Ukraine elected a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in 2019.

Orthodox Church Schism Amid the Russian Invasion

Ukraine's Orthodox Christian population split into competing jurisdictions well before 2022, but Russia's full-scale invasion sharply accelerated a religious realignment already underway: the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople's 2019 grant of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, ending centuries of subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate, was followed after the invasion by a 2022 declaration of the historically Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church that it too was severing practical ties to the Russian church, though the Moscow Patriarchate has not recognized this separation and the Ukrainian church's precise canonical status remains contested.

Ukraine's parliament passed legislation in 2024 to ban religious organizations affiliated with or controlled from Russia, aimed squarely at the Moscow-linked church, which Ukrainian authorities accuse of harboring pro-Russian sympathizers and, in some documented cases, active collaboration with occupying forces, a measure the church and Russian officials have condemned internationally as religious persecution while the Ukrainian government frames it as a wartime national security necessity rather than an attack on Orthodox belief itself. Thousands of individual parishes have transferred allegiance between the two churches amid this conflict, often amid local disputes over building ownership.

Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

Eastern Europe

Source United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions

Associated With

Black Sea

Chersonesus in Crimea and the port of Odesa are both on the northern shore, and both have been repeatedly emptied and repopulated.

Source The Black Sea: A HistoryCharles King

Bohohlasnyk (Encyclopedia of Ukraine)

This source names Ukraine directly: "to the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, for its entry on the Bohohlasnyk."

Source Bohohlasnyk (Encyclopedia of Ukraine)Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto

Christianity

About two thirds Orthodox Christian, received from Byzantium in 988 through the baptism of Kievan Rus.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The 1918-1921 Pogroms in Ukraine and the Onset of the Holocaust

This source names Ukraine directly: "wave of anti-Jewish pogroms that swept Ukraine during the civil war following the Russian Revolution, drawing on newly discovered witness testimonies, trial records and official orders held in..."

Source Divinity Atlas Original Articles, Second Edition

Law of Ukraine on the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations

This source names Ukraine directly: "The Law of Ukraine on the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious Organizations, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in 2024, is the legislature's own statutory text..."

Source Law of Ukraine on the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Field of Activities of Religious OrganizationsVerkhovna Rada of Ukraine

Mennonite Central Committee

This source names Ukraine directly: "in southern Russia, present-day Ukraine."

Source Mennonite Central Committee (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Mennonite Central Committee (Wikipedia)

This source names Ukraine directly: "in southern Russia (present-day Ukraine), holding its first official meeting on 27 September 1920 in Chicago."

Source Mennonite Central Committee (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Razumkov Center: 35.2% of Ukrainians Consider Themselves Faithful of the OCU, 5.5% of the Moscow Patriarchate (RISU, 2022)

This source names Ukraine directly: "The Religious Information Service of Ukraine's 2022 report, "Razumkov Center: 35.2% of Ukrainians consider themselves faithful of the OCU, 5.5% of the Moscow Patriarchate," read 2026-08-16..."

Source Razumkov Center: 35.2% of Ukrainians Consider Themselves Faithful of the OCU, 5.5% of the Moscow Patriarchate (RISU, 2022)Razumkov Centre (survey), reported by RISU

Russian Empire

The Greek Catholic churches of the western provinces were absorbed into Orthodoxy by decree in 1839 and again in 1875.

Source The Orthodox ChurchTimothy Ware (Kallistos Ware)

Russia's Lost Reformation: Peasants, Millennialism, and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917

This source names Ukraine directly: "Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917, Sergei Zhuk's 2004 study from the Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University Press, uses regional archival material on specific..."

Source Russia's Lost Reformation: Peasants, Millennialism, and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917Sergei I. Zhuk

Slavic Native Faith in Ukraine

This source names Ukraine directly: "on Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery) in Ukraine, citing scholar Adrian Ivakhiv's 2005 estimate of 5,000 to 10,000 adherents against other sociologists' contemporaneous estimate of more than 90,000..."

Source Slavic Native Faith in Ukraine

Soviet Union

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was forcibly absorbed into Orthodoxy at a staged synod in 1946 and its bishops deported.

Source The Orthodox ChurchTimothy Ware (Kallistos Ware)

The 1918 to 1921 Ukrainian Pogrom Wave

Took place across the territory of present-day Ukraine during its 1917 to 1921 civil war.

Source In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The 1918-1921 Pogroms in Ukraine and the Onset of the HolocaustJeffrey Veidlinger

Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine

This source names Ukraine directly: "to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine."

Source Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of UkraineEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinoplethe holders' own account

Contains

Kyiv

Kyiv Pechersk Lavra

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Pochaiv Lavra

Source Pochaiv Lavra (Wikipedia)

Pochayiv

Source The Orthodox ChurchTimothy Ware (Kallistos Ware)

Uman

Source Divinity Atlas Entity Records, First Edition

Originated Here

Belz (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Wikipedia: Belz (Hasidic dynasty)

Boyan (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Wikipedia: Boyan (Hasidic dynasty)

Chernobyl (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Chernobyl (Hasidic dynasty) (Wikipedia)

Nadvorna (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Nadvorna (Hasidic dynasty) (Wikipedia)

Rachmastrivka (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Wikipedia: Rachmastrivka (Hasidic dynasty)

Skver (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Wikipedia: Skver (Hasidic dynasty)

Slavs

Ukraine holds Kyiv, where Vladimir's pantheon stood and where Rus Christianity began.

Source Byzantine Missions Among the Slavs: SS. Constantine-Cyril and MethodiusFrancis Dvornik

Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)

Source Wikipedia: Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)

Spread Events Here

The 1905 Odessa Pogrom

The 1918 to 1921 Ukrainian Pogrom Wave

The Baptism of Vladimir and the Rus

Kiev, with the baptism itself traditionally placed at Chersonesos in Crimea; anchored to Ukraine, though modern Russia claims the same event as a shared national and religious origin, named here rather than resolved in favour of either.

Source The Emergence of Rus, 750-1200Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard

Sources

1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020

Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source

2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)

Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyGovernment, government type: UkraineView the Source

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)

Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source

4. International Religious Freedom Report

United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023Criminal Code Article 161View the Source

5. Ukraine Adopts 'Historic' Law to Ban Moscow-Linked Orthodox Church (Al Jazeera)

Al JazeeraView the Source

The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition

Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source

Wikipedia: Skver (Hasidic dynasty)

WikipediaOriginated Here: Skver (Hasidic dynasty), Opening sentences of the entity description

Quote, Originated Here: Skver (Hasidic dynasty), Opening sentences of the entity description

Skver is a Hasidic dynasty founded by Rebbe Yitzchok Twersky in the city of Skver, or Skvyra, in present day Ukraine during the mid nineteenth century.

View the Source

Wikipedia: Belz (Hasidic dynasty)

WikipediaOriginated Here: Belz (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Belz (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

is a Hasidic dynasty founded in the town of Belz in Western Ukraine

View the Source

Wikipedia: Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)

WikipediaOriginated Here: Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

the Yiddish name of Vyzhnytsia, a town in present-day Ukraine

View the Source

Wikipedia: Boyan (Hasidic dynasty)

WikipediaOriginated Here: Boyan (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Boyan (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

named after the town of Boiany in the historic region of Bukovina, now in Ukraine

View the Source

Chernobyl (Hasidic dynasty) (Wikipedia)

Originated Here: Chernobyl (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Chernobyl (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

named after the northern Ukrainian city of Chernobyl

View the Source

Nadvorna (Hasidic dynasty) (Wikipedia)

Originated Here: Nadvorna (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Nadvorna (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

deriving its name from the town of Nadvorna, (Nadvirna), today in Ukraine

View the Source

Wikipedia: Rachmastrivka (Hasidic dynasty)

WikipediaOriginated Here: Rachmastrivka (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

Quote, Originated Here: Rachmastrivka (Hasidic dynasty), Lead

named after the town of Rotmistrivka, Ukraine

View the Source

United Nations Statistics Division: UN M49 Standard country or area codes for statistical use: geographic regions

United Nations Statistics DivisionAncient and Historical Regions: Eastern Europe, Geographic regions table, Eastern Europe

Quote, Ancient and Historical Regions: Eastern Europe, Geographic regions table, Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe 151 Belarus 112 BLR Bulgaria 100 BGR Czechia 203 CZE Hungary 348 HUN Poland 616 POL Republic of Moldova 498 MDA LLDC Romania 642 ROU Russian Federation 643 RUS Slovakia 703 SVK Ukraine 804 UKR

View the Source

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