In 2013, the Ministry of Culture signed the document "Plan for the Organization of the Territory" of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, when it was still managed by the UOC MP.
As Maksym Ostapenko, the former general director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, told Babel in an interview, the document was written under the dictation of the governor Pavlo (Lebid).
The plan called for the development of the Lower Lavra with more than 20 structures, including a seven-story hotel. According to Ostapenko, it was believed that the Ministry had canceled the document, but in fact it had not. This became clear when the reserve later agreed on a place for a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa.
"In February 2025, I wrote a letter to the minister to urgently cancel the plan. I do not exclude that this is the reason for my dismissal. We got into the developersʼ plans. Seventeen illegal structures on the territory of the Lavra — we are talking about $30 million," Ostapenko believes.
He added that during the time the UOC MP managed the Lavra (which was 30 years), 36 buildings were illegally constructed there because the land was not properly registered, and it is now impossible to hold anyone accountable for self-construction.
"The investigatorʼs first question: what are the cadastral boundaries of the land plot? And they are not defined. In 2024, we registered all the land as a reserve. This is my greatest achievement as a director. The next step is to do something with the new building," the former general director emphasized.
- In March 2023, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra National Reserve terminated its lease agreement with the UOC MP. A month later, the then Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko appointed a new Director General Maksym Ostapenko, who served in the position for two years. In May 2025, he was dismissed by the new Minister of Culture Mykola Tochytsky. This sparked a public controversy on social media.
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