The Pochaiv Lavra received an order from the DESS to sever its "ties with Moscow"

The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has officially notified the Pochaiv Holy Dormition Lavra, a men’s monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, of the need to rectify the identified violations of the law. The religious organization has been given 30 days to “sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church,” which were allegedly established earlier by a DESS investigation.

According to , the official website of the DESS, the decision was made based on the results of an investigation. During the inspection, the service’s specialists allegedly discovered signs of the monastery’s affiliation with a foreign religious organization whose activities are prohibited on Ukrainian territory.

Under Ukrainian legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations, this directive is binding. The Pochaiv Lavra is required to bring its activities into compliance with established regulations within one month to avoid further legal consequences.

It should be recalled that earlier, the Ternopil Regional Prosecutor’s Office initiated an investigation aimed at expropriating, for the benefit of the state, a 12-hectare plot of land on which the monastery 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.