Southern Ukraine
According to a 2016 survey of religion in Ukraine conducted by the Razumkov Center, around 65.7% of the population of southern Ukraine declared to be believers in any religion, while 7.4% declared to be non-believers, and 3.2% declared to be atheists and agnostics. the study also found that 77.6% of the total Southern Ukraine population declared to be Christians (71.0% Eastern Orthodox, 5.1% simply Christians, 0.5% Latin Rite Catholics, 0.53% members of various Protestant churches, 0.5% members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), and 0.5% were Jewish. Not religious and other believers not identifying with any of the listed major religious institutions constituted about 24.7% of the population.
Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
It was expected that on 20 December 2018, the Ukrainian Parliament was going vote a law to force the UOC-MP to change its name (bill n. 5309). This law concerns the name of religious organizations (associations) that are part of a religious organization (association) whose governing center is outside the borders of Ukraine, in a state which, according to the Law of Ukraine, is recognized as carrying out military aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupying part of the territory of Ukraine. On 20 December, the bill was successfully voted, while members of the UOC-MP were holding a protest outside the parliament. Soon after the law was passed, a brawl erupted in the parliament between the deputies.