A lawsuit seeking to prohibit a philanthropist from sponsoring a church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is being considered in the Poltava region

A court case has begun in the Poltava region based on a lawsuit filed by local resident Andriy Klymenko, who is seeking to prohibit parishioner Vladislav Kushnirenko from providing financial assistance to the Church of the Nativity of Christ of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Zenkov. The plaintiff insists that the donations be declared illegal.

The basis for the lawsuit is official confirmation from the church’s rector, Father Ioann Babich, who attested to Vladislav Kushnirenko’s long-standing charitable activities on behalf of the religious community. The plaintiff demands that the patron cease all financial support for this church.

Representatives of the Zenkov religious community itself, as well as the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, have been brought into the proceedings as third parties. At this stage, Judge Natalia Tymoshenko has stayed the complaint due to a number of procedural violations, including failure to pay the court fee and the absence of the required set of documents. The plaintiff has been given ten days to remedy these deficiencies.