Recognition of religious organizations as critical infrastructure in wartime as a new challenge for state-church relations in Ukraine

Abstract

This article offers a comprehensive study of the legal, social, and political aspects of integrating religious organizations into Ukraine’s critical infrastructure system under martial law. It substantiates the need for the normative recognition of the social role of churches as actors that contribute to societal resilience during armed conflict. The study employs a comparative analysis of the legislation of Ukraine and selected foreign jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union; a systemic-structural analysis of the functions of religious organizations; and an interpretative analysis of the norms of international humanitarian law and the Constitution of Ukraine. The article demonstrates that, in wartime conditions, religious organizations in Ukraine effectively perform five critical functions: a humanitarian function, through the distribution of aid; a psychological function, through rehabilitation and pastoral care; a function of social cohesion, through the restoration of horizontal trust; a volunteer and logistical function; and a function of preserving national identity. Four major groups of challenges to such recognition are identified: constitutional limitations related to the separation of church and state; the difficulty of differentiating between denominations in a multi-confessional environment, especially in the context of links with the Russian Orthodox Church; practical difficulties of ensuring physical and informational protection; and the discrepancy between the logic of protecting cultural property in international law and the functional approach of critical infrastructure policy. The article establishes that the current sectoral approach in Ukrainian legislation does not take into account the role of religious actors as «agents of resilience». On the basis of an analysis of three international models – direct inclusion, partnership, and functional recognition – the author argues that an adapted model of functional recognition is the most appropriate for Ukraine. This model provides for the recognition of the role of churches within the civil protection system through voluntary partnership agreements, without their formal inclusion in the register of critical infrastructure facilities. Such an approach makes it possible to preserve their institutional autonomy and avoid excessive state control.