Court orders Ministry of Culture to transfer St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv to RCC religious community

On March 13, 2025, the Dnipropetrovs’k District Administrative Court published a decision according to which the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine was ordered to transfer St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv to the ownership of the local Roman Catholic community. According to the published text, the court recognized the previous decisions of the Ministry of Culture in this matter as inappropriate. This was reported by RISU.

“To recognize as unlawful the inaction of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine regarding the failure to fulfill the order of the President of Ukraine of 09.12.2005, out. No. 1-1/1381” and ”To oblige the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine to fulfill the Order of the President of Ukraine of 09.12.2005 out. No. 1-1/1381 to transfer the church of St. Nicholas (non-residential building (lit. G) with a total area of 2655.10 square meters, at 75 Velyka Vasylkivska St., Kyiv) to the religious organization Religious Community of the Parish of St. Nicholas of the Diocese of Kyiv and Zhytomyr of the Roman Catholic Church in Kyiv,” — the court decision reads.

On the contrary, the situation is quite different with churches and architectural monuments used by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. As we reported earlier, on March 12, 2025, the Rivne Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal of the Volodymyr-Volyn Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and upheld the decision of the first instance to expropriate the complex of premises of the Holy Dormition Cathedral in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which also houses the diocesan administration and theological school.