MPs do not have time to consider anti-church bills but "no joy too soon"

The evening session of the Verkhovna Rada is closed. MPs did not have time to consider bills №4128 and №4511, reports a UOJ correspondent.

Around 10,000 gathered outside the Verkhovna Rada to prayerfully protest against the bills today. They held out all day in tension. At the morning session of the Parliament, bills were not considered. It was expected that the vote will take place after 16:00, but the deputies did not have time to consider the scandalous draft laws.

Earlier, Sergei Berezenko, a deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, called the bills "difficult" and said that they need further studying to be put to vote next week.

"We will study the draft laws in factions and next week we will vote to include them in the agenda." This week you obviously won’t see these bills," said Berezenko.

Alexei Goncharenko said the same, "We should think not just three times but three hundred times before we interfere in any matters related to religion and the church through legislative actions. I think that today we should not consider this and we will not consider this."

The UOC faithful greeted the closing of the evening session of the Verkhovna Rada with relief but noted that it's too early to rejoice.

"The evening session of the Verkhovna Rada is over!" MPs didn’t get to considering bills № 4128 and № 4511! Thank God, but let us not rejoice too soon!" Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, Head of the Legal Department of the UOC, wrote on his Facebook page.