The Ternopil Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church lost a court case over a plot of land under the Cathedral

The Supreme Court of Ukraine ruled on the legality of the seizure of land on which the Cathedral of the Ternopil Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in honor of the martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov, and Sofia and the premises of the diocesan administration are located. Previously, the land plot was expropriated from the Church by a decision of the Ternopil City Council and transferred to the ownership of the local community of the OCU. This was reported by the regional publication “20 Minutes.”

It is reported that in its ruling, the Supreme Court noted that “insufficient evidence was presented to confirm that the termination of the UOC’s right to permanent use of the land plot leads to the impossibility of owning and using the property.” The court also took into account that the land plot is owned by the Ternopil City Council, and there is no information about the UOC’s property rights to this land. The panel of judges emphasized that “under such conditions, prohibiting the defendant from making any decisions on the division or transfer of the land plot unreasonably restricts the local government in exercising its rights as the owner.”

In turn, the press secretary of the Ternopil Diocese of the UOC, Archpriest Stefan Balan, commented on the court’s decision with incomprehension — why it was adopted at all. The priest noted that nothing illegal had taken place in the Cathedral to deprive the Church of its land.

«Why take this land away? Nothing illegal has been done in our church, we are not doing anything illegal, and we do not plan to do anything illegal. We pray for peace in Ukraine, we help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but we are also constantly forced to be distracted by legal proceedings because the courts are ongoing, because we have to defend our rights. We just want to work as before. I cannot say whether there will be more lawsuits because our lawyers are dealing with this. I have no information about the allocation of a separate plot of land on the territory of our cathedral,» — said the priest.

Earlier, the Ternopil City Council commented on the decision of the Lviv Court of Appeals to revoke the lease of the land plot on which the cathedral and the diocesan administration of the Ternopil Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are located. City Council lawyer Pavlo Varoda stated that if the diocese refuses to voluntarily dismantle the cathedral in honor of the martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov, and Sofia, located on this plot, the administration has the right to demolish it on its own.