Cherkasy Prosecutor’s Office Demands Transfer of Churches Restored by UOC Believers to the State

In the Cherkasy region, the Prosecutor’s Office has initiated a process to transfer several Orthodox churches, currently used by communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), into state ownership. This was reported by the Dozor channel on «First Cossack.»

The churches in question include:

The Assumption Church in the village of Zhabotyn (19th century),

The St. Alexandra Rotunda Church in the village of Lebedivka (19th century),

The Trinity Church in the village of Puhachivka (18th century),

The Transfiguration Church in the village of Kornylivka (18th century).

According to statements by the Prosecutor’s Office, these churches are architectural monuments and should therefore belong to the state. Officials claim that allowing UOC communities to use the churches “may lead to uncontrolled use, illegal disposal, destruction, or even the annihilation of cultural heritage.”

Particularly strong criticism from the faithful was directed at the situation surrounding the Church of St. Alexandra in Lebedivka. According to them, the church was handed over to the UOC community as ruins after decades of state neglect. The parishioners undertook the full restoration of the temple, gradually returning it to its original beauty.

Now, when the church has been restored and is actively used for worship, the state is attempting to claim it. Members of the religious community see this as an attempt to take the church away from believers after they invested their own resources in its revival.

It is also worth noting that the Cherkasy Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has filed an administrative lawsuit against the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, challenging a decision that stripped UOC clergy of the right to military exemption. The lawsuit is supported by the international human rights alliance “Church Against Xenophobia and Discrimination.”