The Dormition Cathedral and Feast Church of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a historic Kyiv monastery also known as the Monastery of the Caves, have been repossessed by the state, following the expiration of a lease that gave the Ukrainian Orthodox Church temporary rights over the two cultural monuments.
The Ukrainian Minister of Culture Alexander Tkachenko reported the transfer on Facebook.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Pavlo asked President Zelensky not to repossess the two historic buildings leased by the church since 2016. The UOC’s lease expired on December 31, 2022, and repossession proceedings began promptly on January 2, 2023.
Last November, the Ukrainian Security Service carried out a “counterintelligence” raid of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, discovering a cache of pro-Russian print propaganda. Searches were later conducted in other Ukrainian Orthodox cathedrals, in different regions of Ukraine.
In early December, the leadership of the Kyiv Lavra set up a corporation under the name of “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU). The new entity would not be formally subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Minister of Culture Alexander Tkachenko pointed out at the time that there wasn’t yet any discussion of transferring the historic monastery to the newly-established OCU.
On January 4, the OCU press service announced that OCU Metropolitan Epiphany would serve a Christmas liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral on January 7 (Christmas Day for Eastern Christians).
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine plans to ban religious organizations with any ties to Moscow. Verkhovna Rada is now considering a bill on banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its activities in Ukraine.
