Lviv City Council plans to demolish temple of local OCU community

In Lviv, court proceedings continue in the case of the possible demolition of the OCU chapel located in the Golosko residential area. According to the Lviv City Council, the temple was built illegally on the land plot and must be dismantled. The OCU community, in turn, accuses the city council of being unwilling to meet with believers. The case has been pending in courts since 2021.

According to the Lviv-based online publication Leopolis News, the lawsuit was initiated to determine the legality of the construction of the religious building. The focus is not only on the legal side of the issue, but also on the position of the OCU supporters, for whom the chapel has become “an important spiritual center.” The city council claims that the OCU cleric Alexei Leonov installed the chapel without the appropriate permits and did not take any measures to legalize it. Leonov himself, in turn, claims that it is the representatives of the mayor’s office who ignore numerous appeals and avoid contact with the religious community.

According to media reports, representatives of the community have repeatedly tried to establish a dialog with the city authorities, but their appeals remain unanswered. This fact adds additional social tension to the conflict and calls into question the readiness of the mayor’s office to compromise on sensitive religious issues. Further developments will depend on the court’s decision.

“We had many conversations, and at each of the meetings Father Alexei assured us that he would demolish the building. First he promised after Easter, then even later. And so it was constantly postponed until we gathered an expanded commission in the city council with representatives of all instances. We warned my father of the consequences of such actions. He immediately promised that he would take the building. We even offered him to sign a memorandum stating that we would help him go through all the legal procedures, and his father would bring the land plot into compliance,” commented Yevhen Boyko, a representative of the Lviv City Council.

We recall that in April 2023, the Lviv City Council initiated the dismantling of the UOC church in honor of Prince Vladimir, the Equal-to-the-Apostles, which was located in the city’s Sykhiv neighborhood. After the destruction of the religious building, the land plot on which the church was located was transferred to the ownership of the OCU.