Poturaev proposes banning worship services in UOC churches and repurposing them as warehouses and commercial spaces

People’s Deputy Mykyta Poturaev stated that all churches leased by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) from the state or local communities will be «returned» to their owners, and the religious communities will be effectively expelled. He named specific examples — the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra and the Pochaiv Lavra, which, according to him, «will return to state ownership.» He made these comments to LvivMedia.

Regarding churches in private ownership, Poturaev said that although they will not be confiscated, conducting worship services there will be prohibited, and the buildings could be «repurposed» as vegetable warehouses, stores, or even casinos.

“If the property is state-owned — like the Kyiv Pechersk or Pochaiv Lavra — it returns to the state. If the property is municipal — it returns to local government. If the property belongs to a community, and the community wants to remain faithful to a church considered hostile, well, we are not fascists — despite what the Muscovites say about us — we are a rule-of-law state,” Poturaev said. “They can stay, but worship services will be forbidden. Otherwise, they can store vegetables, trade, open casinos.”

It is also worth recalling that Mykyta Poturaev stated that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) will monitor UOC believers who hold worship services in private homes. According to him, if propaganda of the “Russian world” idea is found during such gatherings, it will be the SBU, not the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, that will come to those believers.