Cherkasy region authorities continue expropriation of UOC churches

The village council of Drabivtsi, Cherkasy region, has been ordered by a court to conclude a protection agreement for the local Holy Trinity Church of the UOC, which is an architectural monument dating back to 1794. The decision was made by the Cherkasy District Administrative Court following a lawsuit filed by the regional prosecutor’s office, which found that the local authorities had long “failed to fulfill their obligations to protect the cultural heritage site.”

According to 18000.com.ua, the prosecutor’s office went to court because the village council had long avoided entering into a mandatory protection agreement, which jeopardized the preservation of the unique historical building. At the same time, it is important to note that the church is currently used by the local Holy Trinity community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which makes it impossible to conclude the said security agreement due to a number of legal restrictions caused by the adoption of anti-church law No. 3894.

Thus, there is a high probability that in the near future, the UOC religious community will be illegally re-registered to the OCU so that the Drabivtsi village council can fulfill the request of the Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor’s Office, and UOC believers will lose access to the church due to such legal manipulations.

The Trinity Church is one of the oldest wooden churches in the region. Over its centuries-long history, it has been moved three times (the last time in 1905) and rebuilt many times. During the restoration work of 1989-1990, experts tried to return the building to its original appearance as much as possible.

Earlier, we reported that the Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor’s Office returned to state ownership three churches that previously belonged to religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. These are architectural monuments that were transferred to the use of the OCU communities in 2024 as a result of raider schemes to seize the property of the UOC.