OCU lobbyist says activists should expel UOC from Pochayiv Lavra

Oleksandr Sagan, a lobbyist for the OCU, head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences, believes that civic activists will need to be involved in the expulsion of the monks of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s monastery at the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra. Sagan believes that the local authorities and police of Pochayiv are sympathetic to the UOC, and therefore they will delay the process of transferring the monastery to state ownership. The religious scholar expressed this opinion in an interview with УПЦ

“Local governments are afraid to take responsibility and strictly comply with the requirements of the current legislation. Not allowing the commission to enter the territory of the monastery is not a problem of the law adopted in August 2024, it is a problem of compliance with the norms of the law that existed without it. No one wants to get into the press with him because it is impossible to predict how the scandal will end: there have already been cases when officials acted in accordance with the current legislation and were punished for it. There are also certain sympathies for the UOC-MP, in particular, in the case of the Pochayiv Lavra, I do not exclude that among representatives of local law enforcement agencies,” — Sagan said.

Due to the fact that, according to the expert, the state authorities are not able to enforce the law in the matter of expropriation of the Pochayiv Monastery, it would be appropriate to involve public activists in this process to help speed up the process.

“These two institutions nod at each other and do not act. Although they should. So, we need public activists who will actually force them to fulfill their duties,” — Sagan added.

Recently, the head of the right-wing extremist organization Brotherhood, Dmitry Korchinsky, said that the law banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will not lead to serious changes, so it is necessary to involve “active public” in the seizure of the Church’s property. Korchinsky admitted that the organization he leads has repeatedly participated in the seizure of UOC churches, and therefore the radicals have experience in this area, which they can share if necessary.