The responsible Committee for Humanitarian Affairs and Information Policy voted in favour of passing a corresponding draft law on Thursday, as announced by the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament.
The draft cites the protection of national security and religious freedom as its objectives.
The Ukrainian parliament adopted the controversial legislative initiative by a large majority at the first reading last October.
The committee has now reportedly added the following sentence to the draft: "In view of the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church is an ideological continuation of the regime of the aggressor state, complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the name of the Russian Federation and the ideology of the 'Russian world', the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are prohibited."
The draft is also directed against the traditional Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOK) with around 10,000 parishes.
It is accused of abusing religion and spreading Kremlin propaganda.
The authorities in Kiev are questioning the separation from the Moscow Patriarchate decided by the UOC in May 2022 and continue to recognise the church as belonging to the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Russian Orthodox Church also assumes that the UOC continues to belong to it.
Church leadership defends itself against accusations
The fact that dozens of UOK clergymen allegedly supported the Russian war of aggression against the country caused outrage in Ukraine.
Several bishops and priests have already been sentenced to prison for this and some have been handed over to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange programme.
Russia in particular accuses Kiev of persecuting Orthodox Christians and attacking religious freedom. There are also critical questions and warnings from the EU and the USA about Ukraine's dealings with the UOK.
The UOK's London-based lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, explained in the short message service X that the adoption of the controversial Ukrainian law "would block accession to NATO and the EU and damage relations with any future US administration".
The government in Kiev has been taking sides with the emphatically patriotic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OKU) for years.
According to surveys, most people in the country are committed to it.
The OKU was founded at the end of 2018 with the support of the honorary head of world Orthodoxy, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.