Cabinet of Ministers Transfers Lower Lavra of the Kyiv Cave Monastery to Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate

Seventy-five objects and structures of the Kyiv Cave Monastery will be transferred for free use to the monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). The decision was passed at a meeting on July 11, ZN.UA reports, citing the press service of the Ministry of Culture.

According to Culture Minister Leonid Novokhatko, it only concerns the Lower Lavra. Other rest of the reserve remains under state ownership.

“Adoption of the governmental order legally sorts the current situation in the Holy Dormition of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, which has emerged in the last decade," said Novokhatko.

“I want to emphasize that is only about the free use of property, not about dispossesion,” said the minister.

The legal relationship between the state and religious communities is stipulated by current legislation, in particular by the Economic Code. It is according to these conditions that the Florovsky Convent, Holy Protection Monastery, and Church of the Nativity operate in Kyiv.

The law also stipulates that the state can take back the property if the religious community inappropriately occupies it, reads the statement.

According to the current government's decision, the religious community is responsible for all the costs of maintaining the property.

As reported, on June 27, the Kyiv City State Administration approved the bill, which foresees the return of religious buildings to religious communities.