Orthodox Parishioners Protest in Front of Parliament Against Electronic Passports and ID Cards

Approximately 1,500 parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate participated in a picket in front of the Supreme Council protesting the introduction of electronic passports and ID cards in Ukraine.

According to Interfax-Ukraine, they are holding banners saying “No to the electronic concentration camp for the Orthodox,” “We oppose electronic passports,” “We are against electronic slavery,” “ID card is the Devil’s mark and electronic passport is the permit to hell.”

The protesters told the journalists that they are parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate.

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anatolii Mohyliov, earlier stated Ukraine is ready to begin producing biometric data passports this autumn.

The government allocated to the ministry 60 million UAH to acquire equipment for the implementation of the first stage of the introduction of foreign passports with biometric information about the owner. It was planned to allocate 120 million UAH for that.