The State Religious Affairs Committee will issue an order to the Pochaev Lavra demanding that it "sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church"

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) intends to issue an official order to the Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra demanding that it remove any signs of affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Should the Lavra refuse to comply with this demand, the agency plans to file a lawsuit to halt the activities of this religious organization. This was reported by Ukrinform.

Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service for Religious Affairs, emphasized that the investigation confirmed the Lavra’s ties to the ROC, whose activities are prohibited in Ukraine under the Law “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Religious Organizations.” If the religious organization complies with the order and severs these ties, it will be able to continue its activities without hindrance. Otherwise, as the official noted, the authorities will pursue legal action, similar to the situation surrounding the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

“We cannot investigate all organizations at the same time, but we have completed our review of the Pochaiv Lavra and will begin new investigations next week,” Yelensky clarified. He also added that the demand to withdraw from the Russian Orthodox Church does not affect liturgical traditions, the calendar, or matters of doctrine, but is exclusively a matter of legally distancing itself from an organization whose leadership openly opposes Ukrainian statehood.

As a reminder, the Ternopil Regional Prosecutor’s Office previously initiated an investigation aimed at expropriating, for the benefit of the state, a 12-hectare plot of land on which the monastic complex of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is located — the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra. According to the prosecutor’s office, the transfer of the land to the monastery for use was carried out in violation of the law, and the office is therefore preparing a lawsuit.