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Nikita Poturaev
People's Deputy of Ukraine (9th convocation), Servant of the People party, Chair of VRU Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy
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Nikita Ruslanovych Poturaev
Date of birth: September 4, 1970
Member of Parliament of Ukraine (9th convocation) from the Servant of the People party, Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy.
Mykyta Poturaev is known for his public rhetoric of hatred toward believers and clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The politician has not only incited hostility but has also publicly called for reprisals against Orthodox Christians.
In addition, Poturaev is one of the main lobbyists of Draft Law No. 3894, better known as the “law banning the UOC”.
The MP is also a co-author of other legislative initiatives directed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
December 6, 2022 Poturaev stated that MPs were planning to vote simultaneously on draft laws aimed at banning the UOC and at facilitating the raider-style seizure of churches.
The MP explained that Draft Law No. 8262 was intended to “simplify” transfers from the UOC to the OCU. This document had been developed before the war, and therefore the current version added the following definition:
“the state recognizes the right of the religious administration to be subordinate in canonical and organizational matters to any religious centers operating in Ukraine and abroad, except for foreign religious organizations whose activities are prohibited on the territory Ukraine in accordance with the Law.”
“In order for it to work effectively at these moments (the law that concerns transitions), Mykola Kniazhytsky and his colleagues developed another bill (No. 8221), which prohibits the activities of the ROC in our country. We hope that they will go as a set (to the voting hall). We will immediately kill two birds with one stone: we will put an end to the existence of the ROC and organizations that continue to be affiliated with it in any way, and we will simplify the transitions,” Mykyta Poturaev emphasized.
March 13, 2023 Poturaev supported the forcible eviction of monks of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from the monastery.
“In my opinion, Russia will try to resort to provocations and will interfere with the vacation of the Lavra until March 29. However, as far as I know, our law enforcement officers are ready for this,” he said.
The MP also noted that “patriotically minded members of the public” might come to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on March 29, when the monks were expected to be expelled from the shrine.
“We need to be prepared for the fact that patriotic-minded public, in particular war veterans, will come to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to support its liberation from representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate,” the politician added.
In effect, the MP called for activists to take part in the forcible eviction of monks.
March 14, 2023 Poturaev announced the state expropriation of the relics of saints in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
MPs from different factions sent a letter to the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Maliuk, calling for attention to be paid to the safety of the relics of the Venerable Fathers of the Caves. This was stated by MP Mykyta Poturaev, according to the press service of the Verkhovna Rada.
Poturaev insisted that the UOC must return to the state “the relics and other valuable and historically significant items”.
At the same time, the politician referred to the holy relics as “museum exhibits”:
“We have written a letter to the head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, so I am confident that the competent authorities will take care to ensure that nothing is lost from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.”
April 7, 2023 Poturaev stated that the authorities intended to apply the same scenario to the Pochaiv Lavra as to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
Speaking on Radio Liberty, when asked whether the Kyiv Lavra scenario would be applied to other lavras, particularly Pochaiv, Poturaev said that the committee he heads had “just voted” for a draft resolution that “strongly recommends” that the Cabinet of Ministers proceed with the Pochaiv Lavra “in the same way the state proceeded with the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.”
He said that MPs had prepared several draft laws intended to give legal status to everything that was happening to the UOC.
Poturaev expressed a strong desire for these bills to be passed before Easter, but admitted that “there are nuances, both in the processes currently taking place and in the functioning of the Verkhovna Rada.”
“So it may not be possible to make such a gift by Easter. Then, immediately after Easter, I hope that one of these laws will be passed,” the MP said.
April 10, 2023 Poturaev called for conducting defamatory propaganda against the UOC among European countries.
In an interview with Ukrinform, the MP stated that by banning the UOC, the authorities were not violating freedom of religion.
In his view, “such a law will provide an opportunity for the Ukrainian state and anyone else – a citizen, a politician, a diplomat – to communicate absolutely calmly, convincingly, and with arguments with our Western friends and partners.”
“Even with those who sometimes ask questions that may not be very clear or pleasant for us, and to tell them: friends, this (the ban on the UOC – Ed.) is not about religion. This is exclusively about relations with organizations that are in fact instruments of Putin’s dictatorship,” Poturaev said.
May 1, 2023 Poturaev admitted in an interview with LIGA.net that he had lobbied for the termination of the lease agreement with the Pochaiv Lavra.
“It’s a very lousy contract,” Poturaev admitted. “In the case of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the contract could be terminated, but as regards the contract (on the Pochaiv Lavra – Ed.), there are no grounds for its termination at all.”
At the same time, according to him, government lawyers were “not giving up” and were “working with the contract,” looking for solutions.
“We are not setting a deadline – the main thing for us is to get it back. But in such a way that we don’t lose it the next day,” Poturaev said.
The MP claimed that after the expulsion of the UOC, the authorities did not plan to transfer Lavra properties to any other denomination.
September 24, 2023 Poturaev called for pressure to be exerted on MPs who refused to vote for the ban on the UOC.
Speaking on Espreso TV, Poturaev claimed that banning the UOC would not violate freedom of religion or constitute state interference in Church affairs. According to him, those who think otherwise, including MPs, are “simply misinformed.”
He asserted that the UOC allegedly “subordinates itself” to the Moscow Patriarchate, and therefore banning the Church is “not about faith at all, not about religion at all, not about freedom of conscience at all”. According to him, “a religious organization is a specific form of a public organization”. Therefore, banning the UOC is “not about Christ”.
Poturaev also stated that it was necessary to intensify pressure on MPs to force them to vote for the ban on the UOC.
According to him, there were almost 200 MP signatures in favor of banning the UOC, but to guarantee the result it was necessary to have not just 226 votes (the minimum required), but 230 or 240.
“For this, we need to work harder,” Poturaev said.
“Our situation, I want to emphasize, is not hopeless at all. That is, in fact, we must now say that all factions and groups must work in such a way that we are absolutely certain we have an additional 40, or better yet 50 votes. This is, in my view, an achievable goal, and it must be accomplished,” the MP stated.
To achieve this, he called for MPs to be pressured.
“I have repeatedly said that without pressure from the public and the media, unfortunately, we will not achieve this,” Poturaev said.
According to him, “the entire country must know by name who among the MPs of the Verkhovna Rada is ready to vote even before the vote, and who is not”. For this purpose, he called on “media colleagues and colleagues from the public sector” to call MPs and demand that they publicly state their position on banning the UOC.
July 22, 2024 Poturaev sent letters to the heads of parliamentary factions of the Verkhovna Rada demanding that the draft law banning the UOC be immediately put to a vote.
July 23, 2024 Attempting to discredit voices in the United States that speak out about violations of religious freedom in Ukraine, Poturaev claimed that “there are enemies of Ukraine in the United States who spread lies” about the situation of the Church in Ukraine.
“There are enemies of Ukraine there, and this must be understood. And there is no need to explain anything to the enemies of Ukraine, because they are enemies. They want our defeat, they want our destruction. That is what they want. And what arguments they will use does not matter at all,” Poturaev said.
When a journalist remarked that such unwillingness to engage with U.S. officials could affect aid to Ukraine, the MP replied that “if enemies of Ukraine win, that will affect aid to Ukraine.”
Commenting on remarks about persecution of the UOC made by U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, whom U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump had named as his running mate, Poturaev said that he did not wish to interfere in the American electoral process, but wanted to believe that Vance was “simply using unverified information.”
January 6, 2025 Poturaev told journalists from Glavcom that the statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights criticizing the law banning the UOC was “expected,” as well as “pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian.”.
He said that “Our representatives in the UN opposed it as much as they could, but our capabilities also have their limits.”
“Unfortunately, the UN is stuffed with Russian agents of influence, so we shouldn’t expect too much from our diplomats,” Poturaev claimed, while being unable to name specific individuals.
“As far as I know, a conglomerate was at work there. It’s hard to say where the Kremlin ends and where the Kremlin-adjacent individuals begin,” the MP stated.
He argued that the OHCHR report could not be considered an analytical document.
“A conclusion can only be drawn when you study and research something. This is simply a political pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian statement,” Poturaev said.
According to him, the UN statement was “just a set of slogans without any evidence”, and its initiators were trying to use it to discredit Ukraine’s struggle.
He stated that there was no need to pay any attention to the UN, since “none of these actions will change our position or that of our closest friends in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, who understand all the dangers posed by this so-called church”.
May 10, 2025 Poturaev stated that delays in implementing the law banning the UOC threaten the country’s national security.
According to him, the transitional period established by Law No. 8371 ends on May 24, 2025, after which religious organizations affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate must be deprived of the right to operate.
“Do you understand what you are playing with? You are playing with issues of national security. When we were finally pushing this law through the chamber with the President’s direct assistance, he clearly said: ‘This is spiritual sovereignty, this is spiritual independence.’ And spiritual independence is part of state independence,” Poturaev said emotionally.
In the same interview, Poturaev stated that the Ukrainian side had to conduct lengthy consultations with American partners to explain the need to ban the UOC.
“There is a special commission in the United States that monitors what is happening in all countries. And we were in communication with them, because they had certain reservations. We explained for a long time why we were doing this, what the reasons were, what the ROC is, that it is not really a Church but a continuation of the Russian state, effectively an aggressive one,” Poturaev said, without explaining how this related to the UOC.
According to him, banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not simple, because “the European Union is also monitoring this – these are serious, fundamental matters”.
May 26, 2025 Poturaev stated that the Ukrainian authorities were not afraid of U.S. sanctions and intended to go “to the end” in the destruction of the UOC.
Commenting on a statement by the Russian Foreign Minister that “Russia will not abandon Orthodox people in Ukraine in trouble and will ensure that their lawful rights are respected and that canonical Orthodoxy returns to a central place in the spiritual life of the people on Ukrainian lands,” Poturaev said that these words were “an attempt to pass the ball to Washington.”
“They still hope that there are people there (in the United States – Ed.) who live in illusions that this so-called church, the ROC and all its branches, is a Church, and that Russia is a country that defends Christian values. This is an attempt to send a signal there so that pressure is exerted on us: ‘Take your hands off the Christian Church.’ But in reality, these hopes are absolutely in vain,” the MP stated.
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