The state plans to expropriate a UOC church in the Kharkiv region

The prosecutor’s office is demanding that the Archangel Michael Church in Krasnokutsk, Kharkiv region, built in 1873–1880, be returned to the state. According to the prosecutor’s office, the building, which has the status of an architectural monument, was illegally registered as the property of the local religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2005. This was reported by the press service of the Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office.

It is reported that the Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office is defending the preservation of one of the region’s most valuable architectural monuments, the St. Archangel Michael Church in Krasnokutsk, for the state. Built in 1873–1880, the five-domed church with a two-tiered bell tower and a pentagonal apse is a real gem of the Slobozhanshchyna region. The building has the status of a monument of urban planning and architecture of local importance and is under state protection.

However, the prosecutor’s office found that in 2005, the church was illegally removed from state ownership. By decision of the executive committee of the Krasnokutsk village council, collective ownership of the church building was registered to the local religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On this basis, the community received a certificate of ownership, and the data was subsequently entered into the state register of property rights.

Such actions initially contradicted the law. In February 2005, the Law of Ukraine “On the Temporary Prohibition of Privatization of Cultural Heritage” came into force. It expressly prohibited the privatization of cultural heritage sites until the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved a list of sites that were not subject to privatization. These measures were aimed at preserving the country’s historical and cultural heritage.

In order to restore the violated rights, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office filed a lawsuit requesting: to partially invalidate the certificate of collective ownership; to remove obstacles to the exercise of property rights and use of the monument by the state by returning the Holy Archangel Michael Church. The Commercial Court of Kharkiv Region opened proceedings in the case, which is still ongoing.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested what would happen to the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church if the UOC were legally banned and church property expropriated. According to Zakharova, the churches of the UOC, similar to European practice, would be used as desired, but not for their intended purpose.