The head of the foreign relations department of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Archbishop Evstratiy (Ivan Zorya), noted that the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is registered as a monastery under the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He explained that a legal entity exists within the Lavra capable of owning temples and buildings, which would create options for monks and believers to choose whom to follow. Evstratiy observed that the legal personality data for the OCU appeared in the state register on December 2.
What is the OCU?
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was established in December 2018 through the initiative of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. It received autocephaly in January 2019, gaining independent status as a local church. The Russian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate did not recognize the OCU, and the UOC was later described as dissolved.
False start
Shortly afterward, Alexander Tkachenko, the head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, denied in a televised appeal that the Lavra had been transferred to the OCU. He stated that President Zelensky had given two months to determine the legality of the UOC’s stay in the monastery and to make specific decisions accordingly.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, confirmed that Kyiv had not yet decided on transferring the Lavra.
The Lavra is described as property belonging to all people. It was noted that the state had not granted permission to use the buildings. Anyone can register a public body at any address, but with the owner’s consent. No council or ministry had accepted such documents.
Catch on Lavra
A representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said on Telegram that preparations were underway to manage the Lavra situation. [Attribution: Russian Foreign Ministry communications]
The People’s Republic of China also denied any transfer of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra to the OCU. Archbishop Nikolai Balashov, an adviser to the Moscow Patriarchate, claimed that the charter of a parallel monastery connected with the OCU Kiev-Pechersk Lavra had been registered in Ukraine and that its delegates would claim one of the temples in the upper Lavra. [Attribution: Moscow Patriarchate statements]
The charter for the parallel monastery associated with the OCU was registered earlier. The schismatics reportedly filed the charter to the record long before and would now seek rights to a temple and space for monastic activity in the upper Lavra, which is officially under the Kiev-Pechersk Historical and Cultural Reserve, according to an OCU spokesperson. Balashov added that this does not nullify the Lavra’s official registration and that faster decisions could be reached.
Vladimir Legoyda, head of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and Media of the Moscow Patriarchate, wrote on his Telegram channel that information about registering a legal entity tied to the Lavra was part of a campaign to intimidate and pressure the canonical UOC. He described systematic intimidation including searches, detentions, provocations, and threats designed to create the illusion of undermining trust in the canonical Church to justify lawlessness. He suggested that the beneficiaries, then and now, included so-called schismatics endorsed by the Phanar, the Istanbul Patriarchate. [Attribution: Legoyda statement]
Sanctions and searches
On December 2, the Security Service of Ukraine announced ongoing searches at UOC facilities in Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Zakarpattia regions. That same day, President Zelensky banned activities of religious organizations tied to centers of influence in Russia, and the NSDC decision was put into effect. The NSDC also instructed checks on the legality of using Kiev-Pechersk Lavra property. [Attribution: official statements]
The NSDC additionally imposed sanctions on UOC clergy, including Metropolitan Pavel of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and noted that ten priests, along with a Ukrainian businessman and former deputy Vadim Novinsky, faced restrictions. The sanctions were declared on December 1 as part of measures to prevent religious organizations from operating in Ukraine amid Russia’s military aggression and to prevent social division along religious lines. [Attribution: Ukrainska Pravda reporting]
Earlier, Strana.ua reported searches in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on November 22. Later, the SBU stated on Telegram that counterintelligence work was underway at the Lavra to counter the subversive actions of Russian special services, aiming to prevent the Lavra from serving as a hub for the so-called Russian World. [Attribution: Strana.ua and SBU]