A court in Volyn denied parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church permission to participate in the trial regarding the Miletsky Monastery

The Commercial Court of Volyn Oblast issued a ruling stating that approximately 200 parishioners of the Mykolaiv-Miletsky Monastery of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were not permitted to participate in the court proceedings as third parties. The lawsuit seeking the seizure of the monastery complex was initiated by local authorities.

According to , during the hearing , the court rejected the parishioners’ motions, as well as the request to involve the Volodymyr-Volyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the case. At the same time, the court granted the request to include representatives of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Kovel District Military Administration in the proceedings. The court’s position is based on the fact that the property dispute is exclusively of a legal nature between legal entities, despite the believers’ arguments that their right to spiritual life is directly linked to the preservation of the monastic community within the monastery’s walls.

Lawyers for the monastery also expressed doubts regarding the legality of the authority of Roman Romanyuk, the acting head of the Volyn Regional Military Administration, to sign procedural documents. It should be recalled that regional authorities are seeking to seize the monastery in the village of Miltsy from the UOC community; the complex includes St. Nicholas Church, the Church of the Transfiguration, a bell tower, as well as monks’ cells and the abbot’s residence. The monastery was restored by the monks themselves, and they now face forced eviction.

As a reminder, we previously reported that the monastic community and parishioners of the St. Nicholas Monastery in the village of Miltsy, Volyn region, appealed to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Congresswoman Anna Pauline Luna with a request to protect their religious rights from the threat of eviction. The monastery, with a history dating back some 700 years, risks being evicted after its lease expires.