A court has opened a criminal investigation into the restriction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s access to buildings at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

On June 17, 2026, criminal proceedings were initiated in Ukraine on charges of abuse of authority due to the restriction of access by the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to buildings No. 41 and No. 42 on the grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. According to the Information and Education Department of the UOC, the information was entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations following a corresponding decision by the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv.

According to the source, the basis for registering the case was a court order requiring authorized officials of the pre-trial investigation body to enter the information into the registry. Attorney Archpriest Nikita Chekman stated that officials of the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” had replaced the locks—without any court decisions having entered into force—and had effectively restricted the monastery’s access to the premises it had been using.

The report notes that this concerns a dispute over property regarding which, it is claimed, legal proceedings are ongoing. The human rights activist pointed out that, in his opinion, such actions contradict the principle of the rule of law, since a legal dispute must be resolved exclusively through the courts, rather than by unilateral actions of one of the parties.

Now, as part of a pretrial investigation, law enforcement agencies must establish all the circumstances of the incident, identify those involved, and provide a legal assessment of the actions taken by the reserve’s officials. The attorney expressed hope for a full, comprehensive, and impartial investigation, as well as for the restoration of the monastery’s monastic community’s violated rights in accordance with the law.

As a reminder, earlier, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, the lawyer for the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra,reported the seizure of yet another church on the monastery’s grounds. According to the human rights advocate, on the morning of June 11, 2026, representatives of the “nature reserve” cut off the locks and broke into the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in the Far Caves, also known as the Academic Church.