Abstract
<jats:p>The article raises important and at the same time difficult issues for religious objectification and expert assessment – an objective reflection of the place of the religious factor in state-building processes, the role of religious organizations, in particular the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the «Ukrainian» Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in protecting the constitutional order in Ukraine, its national security, territorial integrity and state sovereignty. In this context, a comprehensive analysis of the leading state policy strategies regarding the «U»ОC (MP), whose affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church has been proven by leading experts not only at the national level, was carried out. The non-imperial ideology of the «Russian world» is interpreted as nothing other than heresy, and the activities of the ROC outside Russia are interpreted as espionage and pose a great threat not only to the national democracies of European countries, but also to global geopolitics. Despite Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the eleventh year of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the «U»OC (MP) has not only not severed its spiritual and canonical ties with the ROC, but is also openly cooperating with the aggressor. This exacerbates the issues of religious expertise of the state policy of the Ukrainian authorities regarding the «U»ОC (MP) in the context of Ukraine’s national security. Therefore, the research focus is on clarifying the influence of the «U»ОC (MP) and substantiating the obvious and most likely threats to the national security of Ukraine through the activities of the structures of the Moscow Patriarchate. Based on this, emphasis is placed on interpreting the content and leading trends of modern church and religious policy, and, in particular, on the activities of the «U»ОС (MP) as a religious organization affiliated with the ROC. Key problems that determine the current state and prospects for the implementation of state strategies in the religious sphere have been identified, since spiritual identity and national security in the context of a war of aggression remain the fundamental foundations not only of political life, but also of stability, indomitability, and struggle. This obliged the state authorities to move from a policy of non-interference to active counteraction to the potentially hostile influence of ROC structures in Ukraine and prompted them to protect the constitutional order, information space, territorial integrity, national spiritual and cultural identity, and many other values o f existential importance.</jats:p>