"We need money and time": Head of the Ministry of Culture tells when the state will be able to repair St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv

The head of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, Mykola Tochytskyi, did not give a direct answer to the question of when the state will be able to start repairing the Catholic St. Nicholas Church in Kyiv. The official noted that money and time are needed to start work, and the approach to restoration should be comprehensive. He said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

“This issue is very important, because the Church of St. Nicholas is of great importance for the preservation of our cultural heritage. The problems of the church cannot be solved solely by funding from UNESCO. There should be a comprehensive approach to this issue, we have to restore everything. For a full restoration, we need to raise funds, which takes time. We are communicating with international partners, and not only with UNESCO, to include this object in the Ukrainian Heritage Fund for its further restoration,” — Tochytskyi said.

Earlier, we reported that the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the House of Organ Music filed two appeals against the decision of the Dnipro District Administrative Court of Kyiv to transfer St. Nicholas Church to the local Roman Catholic community. In their lawsuits, government agencies claim that the local RCC community has had the right to use the building since 2022. In turn, the Roman Catholics themselves emphasize that they deny this claim.