The Commission of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy completed the inventory and acceptance of the property of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Now the UOC MP must leave the monastery within 3 days.
This was reported by Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko.
"In general, the commission checked and returned 79 objects to the use of the state. Everyone is in a different state. The UOC MP allowed arbitrary reconstruction, extension, re-planning of monuments of cultural heritage and construction of new buildings on the territory of the Reserve. We will deal with all this," he noted.
According to him, the reserve has already sent a request to the UOC MP to immediately vacate the premises of the Lavra. If this does not happen, then there will be a lawsuit to ensure access to the reserve to all the property of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
- 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) informed 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 committee is working in the Lavra that conducts an inventory. However, the priests of the UOC MP hinder its work, in particular, they do not let the committee into the buildings and do not give them the keys to enter.
- On April 25, it became known that the Commercial Court of Kyiv forbade obstructing the work of the commission in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.