On June 5, the Commission of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (MKIP) began an inspection of state property in the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra, which is used by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Culture.
From June 3 to 29, the commission will check the state of preservation of real estate, which in December 2003 was transferred to the UOC MP for free use. It is about the complex of buildings of the Pochaiv Lavra.
The commission is headed by Olha Rutkovska, the head of the department for coordination of activities of cultural institutions of the department of cultural heritage of MKIP.
She noted that the commission is interested in the state of preservation of buildings, as well as the extent to which fire safety techniques are observed. The commission will also check the preservation of icons, iconostases and other things.
"All these things are described and all this is subject to verification. Today the work has just begun. This is the first inspection trip," explained Rutkovska.
What is happening with the Pochaiv Lavra
The complex of the Pochaiv Lavra includes 18 buildings. It was leased to the UOC MP in 2003. The lease agreement was concluded for 49 years, and it is valid until 2052.
In April 2023, the parliament registered a project of an appeal to the government about terminating the lease agreement with the UOC MP regarding the monastery buildings.
In the explanatory note, the authors explained the initiative by the fact that the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra "is the source of the "Russian peace" and "has become an outpost of anti-Ukrainian forces and a center of inter-confessional confrontation and discord."
In April 2023, the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy of the Verkhovna Rada recommended checking compliance with the terms of the agreement on the use of the Pochaiv Lavra by the UOC MP. In the same month , the Ministry of Culture created a corresponding commission.
Meanwhile, in March, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) decided to start its own menʼs monastery with the name "Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra of the Ternopil Eparchy of the OCU".