Prosecutor's Office of Cherkasy region tries to take away XVIII century church from UOC community

The Cherkasy Region Prosecutor’s Office has initiated legal proceedings to expropriate the 1785 wooden St. George’s Church in the village of Myzynivka, Cherkasy Region, which until now was not owned by the state and was on the balance sheet of the St. George’s religious community of the Uman Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Myzynivka. According to the prosecutor’s office, the process was initiated in order to «preserve cultural heritage.»

According to the Cherkasy regional prosecutor’s office, law enforcement officers found «serious violations» against St. George’s Church in Zvenyhorod district. This wooden church is an architectural monument of local significance and is located at 24a Mira Street in the village of Myzynivka, Cherkasy region. The main problem, according to the prosecutor’s office, is that the building was not registered as state property, which deprived it of «the necessary legal protection and created risks for its further destruction.» The Prosecutor’s Office of Cherkasy region appealed to the court to oblige the authorized bodies to register the state ownership of the church, built in 1785.

However, according to open sources in the media, the said St. George’s Church belongs to the local St. George’s religious community of the UOC, which is still active and has not been deregistered. In addition, the chronology of the church’s condition — from the moment it was transferred to the ownership of the religious community to the present day — indicates that the church was restored by believers, is in excellent condition, is operational and does not require «additional care» by state institutions.

This leads to the conclusion that under the pretext of transferring St. George’s Church in the village of Myzynivka, Cherkasy region, to state ownership, the Cherkasy Regional Prosecutor’s Office has actually begun the legal process of expropriating the church building in question with a view to further evicting the local religious community of the UOC.

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.