Minister Tkachenko: The court forbade obstructing the work of the commission in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

The Commercial Court of Kyiv decided to ensure the smooth operation of the state commission in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The commission deals with the evaluation and acceptance and transfer of state property.

The Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko told about this on the air of the telethon.

"We have a decision of the Economic Court of Kyiv to secure the lawsuit, one of our demands has been satisfied that no one interferes with the ministryʼs work until the courtʼs decision becomes legally binding, before the reserveʼs main lawsuit is considered. I think that from now on, there will be no excesses during the work of the commission," he noted.

According to him, now at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra "dialogue continues" between the commission and representatives of the UOC MP.

• On March 10, 2023, the National Reserve "Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra" announced that, effective March 29, it was terminating the agreement with the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the free use of buildings located on the territory of the reserve. The warning concerns the buildings of the lower Lavra, where the menʼs monastery is located. In the Upper Lavra, the UOC MP used the Dormition Cathedral and the Tabernacle Church, but the contract for their lease expired on December 31, 2022, and was not renewed. These two temples were returned to state management on January 5.
• The UOC MP called the warning received from the reserve "another ultimatum." On March 13, Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) said that the monks have no intention of moving out of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
• On March 30, the Lavra was returned to state management, and on April 14, the reserve received a new head, Maksym Ostapenko, the former head of the "Khortytsia" reserve. Currently, a commission is working in the Lavra that conducts an inventory. However, the priests of the UOC MP hinder her, in particular, they do not let her into the buildings or do not give her the keys to enter.