Dmytro Vovk
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

The relations between the Ukrainian state and religion have always been heavily personalized. Since independence, they have been determined not so much by constitutional protections or legal regulations and procedures but more by religions’ political connections and their ability to transform these connections into benefits and advantages on Ukraine’s highly competitive religious market. This has made personal religious attitudes and preferences possessed by key political actors, and, first of all, by the Ukrainian President, extremely important for the model of the country’s religion-state relations.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency is not an exception from this personalized pattern and, at the same time, is unique in terms of the core ideas behind his approach to religion. Since his election in 2019, Zelensky seems to have made an impressive religio-political journey from no religious agenda to the heavy involvement in inter-Orthodox relations since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In his lecture, Dmytro Vovk will explain why and to what extent Zelensky's personal and political approach to religion and religions has changed and what it means for the Ukrainian model of religion-state relations.