In doing so, the body comprising several Christian churches as well as the Jewish and Islamic communities is supporting President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for complete "spiritual independence".
In a statement distributed at the weekend, the council said that it categorically condemned the activities of the UOK, known here as the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It had made itself an "accomplice to the bloody crimes of the Russian invaders against humanity", sanctified weapons of mass destruction and advocated the destruction of Ukrainian statehood, culture and identity.
At the same time, the Council affirmed that "religious rights and freedoms are respected in Ukraine" despite the war.
The greatest threat to religious freedom in Ukraine is the Russian aggression, as a result of which the occupying forces killed dozens of clergymen and destroyed hundreds of churches and houses of worship, according to the Council.
Decision this week
The law "on the protection of the constitutional order in the field of religious organisations" is to be voted on this week. The idea behind it is "freedom of religion under the condition of no links to the aggressor and the Russian Orthodox Church", the Ukrainian parliament announced on Telegram on Friday.
Accordingly, organisations linked to Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate are to be banned. Ukrainian religious organisations suspected of collaborating with the ROC are to be given nine months to sever their ties with Moscow. Western observers are warning Ukraine that a complete ban on the UOK would be a massive violation of religious freedom.
The government in Kiev, meanwhile, is questioning the UOK's decision to break away from the Moscow Patriarchate. The church leadership has always rejected the accusations. Around 10,000 parishes and most of the country's monasteries belong to the traditional UOK. The church also has congregations abroad in Germany today as a result of the war.
In Ukraine, the UOK competes with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OKU). It was founded at the end of 2018 with the support of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople as a merger of the Kiev Patriarchate, which was established after Ukraine's independence, and a smaller church.
Patriarch Bartholomew granted the OKU its independence at the beginning of 2019 with the signing of the so-called "Tomos".
However, this has so far only been recognised by some of the Orthodox churches and also led directly to a break between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Moscow Patriarchate.