Ternopil City Council transfers land under UOC Cathedral to OCU community

The Ternopil City Council transferred to the religious community of the OCU a land plot (at 1 Konovaltsia Street, Ternopil), where the Cathedral and diocesan administration of the Ternopil Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are located. This decision was made by the city council despite the fact that the Supreme Court of Ukraine seized the land, prohibiting the city council from disposing of the property in any way. Now the OCU community, which was given the land under the UOC Cathedral, is going to build a chapel there. This is reported by the regional edition “20 minutes”.

“While the administration of the Ternopil Diocese of the UOC is suing the city council, in June 2023, a religious organization “Parish of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia in Ternopil, Ternopil, Ternopil Diocese of the OCU” was created. According to the YouControl portal, it is headed by Andriy Koval. In addition, he is one of the founders of the religious organization “Holy Trinity Parish Spiritual Center in honor of Danylo Halytskyi of the Ternopil Diocese of the OCU”, headed by Mykola Zinkevych. This is known from Opendatabot. In October 2024, the organization applied to the city council for the allocation of a land plot on Konovaltsia Street for the maintenance (construction) of public and religious organizations. A copy of the application is provided below. At a session of the Ternopil City Council, 34 deputies voted in favor of allocating and granting a 0.0653-hectare land plot on Konovaltsia Street for permanent use to a religious organization. As Victoria Ostapchuk reported in her response to the request, it is a plot with a cadastral number: 6110100000:06:002:2024. According to her, there are no prohibitions on the adoption of this decision regarding this land plot and the court decision of December 11, 2024 does not mention it,” — the media reported.

In turn, a representative of the “double community” of the OCU said that at this stage they are preparing documents, and in the near future they will build a chapel on this site.

“The director of the religious organization, Andriy Koval, told 20 Minutes by phone that it is about the allocation of a land plot at 1 Konovaltsia Street, exactly where the Cathedral of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia of the UOC is located. According to him, the documents are currently being prepared. “On the land plot allocated by the city council, we want to build a chapel where people can pray. We have no relation to the ministers or believers of the Cathedral of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia. We are a separate organization founded by the public. Currently, we are preparing documents, we are not carrying out any construction work,” — the media added.

Earlier, we reported that the Western Commercial Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the first instance to transfer the complex of premises of the Pochayiv Holy Spirit Monastery-Skete of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the state. The court dismissed the appeal of the UOC monastic community, thus satisfying the demands of the Ternopil Regional Council.