Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko believes that draft laws on the activities of churches with control centers in the aggressor state can set a countdown for the likely transformation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

"First of all, what we are doing in the ministry is to put things in order with state-owned property that was in the use of the UOC-MP. This is our priority task. Secondly, I think that there should be a political solution. I know that there are several draft laws in the Verkhovna Rada on the activities of churches with control centers in the aggressor state, which can set, so to speak, a countdown time for a possible transformation of the UOC-MP," Tkachenko told Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question of what place he sees for the UOC-MP in the short, medium and long term in Ukraine.

To a clarifying question whether he admits that the UOC-MP can transform and remain, the minister said Ukraine is a European state and must act within the law.

"The process of this transformation depends on what law will be adopted and what procedure will be prescribed regarding how the transformation of religious organizations with centers in the aggressor state can take place. But what we see as a result of the work of the commission in Lavra testifies to that a certain transformation is taking place in the brain, we see it," Tkachenko said.