"We will take away the churches, but we will not close them": DESS official told about the consequences of the ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The first deputy head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), Viktor Voynalovych, has spoken about what will happen to the property of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the UOC is banned through a court. The official claims that although the Church will lose all property rights, the state does not plan to close the churches. About this he told in an interview with the publication “Apostrophe”.

“Property, property complex is a separate issue, as practice shows, the court decision should contain the creation of a liquidation Commission. The subject of activity and work of the liquidation Commission, among other things, is property. The property must be transferred. If it is state property, it must be returned to the state, if it is private property – it is a separate situation, but it is also the subject of consideration of the liquidation commission,” said the official.

Voynalovich added that although the Church, in case of liquidation of the Kyiv Metropolitan Church of the UOC, will lose its property rights, the temples will still remain open. Except that the official did not specify to whom exactly they will belong.

“We are not talking about the closure of temples, we are not talking about the cessation of any religious activity or conducting services in the temples. We are talking about legally upheld, justified and proven by the court decisions on the compliance of those legal actions that will result from such decisions. The Metropolia, as a legal entity, cannot be deprived of this right – it cannot use the lease of state, communal property. That is, all these contracts must be terminated. Actually, in connection with this and all the possible consequences of this. But we are not talking about the closure of the temple, in any case”, – he added.

We will remind, earlier we reported that the State Historical and Architectural Reserve “Kyiv Ancient” (GIAZ) began to check a number of cultural heritage sites, among them – the temples of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which are monuments of architecture, which the UOC uses on the rights of lease. It is noted that GIAZ will examine for preservation and compliance with the current legislation.