The State Property Fund prematurely terminated the contracts concluded with the UOC CMs in Rivne and Zhytomyr regions

on September 15, 2025, a message about the early termination of the property lease agreement between the regional office of the State Property Fund in Rivne and Zhytomyr regions and the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the UOC appeared online. At the same time, a representative of the public organization «Decolonization.Ukraine» urged to settle the situation as soon as possible and transfer the buildings that were used by the UOC to the ownership of the OCU. This is reported by «Suspilne.Rivne».

Characteristically, the State Property Fund did not confirm or deny the information. The chairman of the commission on reorganization Cyril Berezhnoy said that he did not give comments on the termination of contracts with this religious organization to anyone. Nevertheless, according to him, the commission’s position is that the issue falls within the competence of state bodies that realize the policy in the sphere of religion. If the State Property Fund receives relevant letters or appeals, the decision will be implemented.

«At the moment we are not taking any action, that is, I cannot say, such an institution falls under, such an institution does not fall under. There is a specific procedure for resolving this issue, and we are not a key participant in this process, we will only use the instructions, that is, in fulfillment of this or that court decision, letters from the central bodies dealing with religion, religious issues. Then we will already react. At the moment I don’t have any instructions, orders, prescriptions, I don’t have anything,» he explained.

In turn, the chairman of the public organization «Decolonization. Ukraine» Vadym Pozdnyakov explained that he did not know which objects were in question, so he would clarify the issue. He expressed a negative attitude to the situation, emphasizing that the issue should be settled as soon as possible.

Answering the question of who could get this property after the possible termination of contracts, Vadim Pozdnyakov explained that everything depends on specific objects.

«One has to be a little bit in context. As my experience of personal cooperation with communities shows, there are those in which there are very many churches in general, it is not clear on what grounds in the lease. If they are churches, then I think it would be worth handing over to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine canonical. If there is some other property there, then we need to look here. I think that there are not only temple buildings, » — said Pozdnyakov.

We will remind, earlier we reported that the State Historical and Architectural Reserve «Kyiv Ancient» (GIAZ) began to check a number of objects of cultural heritage, 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.