The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate) will challenge in court the non-renewal of the lease agreement for the Upper Lavra churches.
This was announced at a press conference by the head of the UOC (MP) legal department, archpriest Oleksandr Bakhov.
It is about the refusal to extend the lease of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) of the Dormition and Tabernacle Churches in the Upper Lavra, which expires on December 31 of this year.
“I see this as a judicial perspective,” he said.
The priest added that the question of how and where the services will be held in the future is “being resolved.”
As a reminder, the lease of the Dormition and Tabernacle Churches in the Upper Lavra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) expires on December 31. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy recommends that the deal not be extended.
The vicar of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavlo (Lebid) called on President Volodymyr Zelensky not to take away from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (MP) the churches on the territory of the Lavra. He recorded a video address in which he complained that the UOC (MP) had not received a written notice of lease termination from January 1.
On November 22, the Security Service of Ukraine raided the premises of the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv. Kremlin dictator Putin’s press secretary Peskov called the searches in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra “another link in the chain of military actions carried out by Kyiv against Russian Orthodoxy.”
