In Kharkiv region prosecutor's office achieved expropriation of the UOC church

The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office has succeeded in expropriating in favor of the state the Archangel Michael Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Krasnokutsk, which is a local architectural monument of the XIX century. The court decision recognized illegal registration of the temple in the ownership of the religious community, which occurred in 2005.

According to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the agency recently proved “the illegality of the disposal from the state ownership of the religious building, which reflects the typical for its period style, design and artistic solutions of the XIX century”. The temple, according to the prosecutor’s office, was “illegally registered” in the ownership of the religious community of Krasnokutsk back in 2005. Such actions “directly contradicted the laws of Ukraine, which were in force at that time and prohibited the privatization of cultural heritage objects”.

The prosecutor’s office demanded to recognize the certificate of ownership as invalid and return the temple to state ownership. The Economic Court of Kharkiv region on October 29, 2025 satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor’s office, and the official return of ownership of the Mikhailovsky church to the state is scheduled for January 2026.

We would like to remind you that earlier we reported that the Prosecutor’s Office of Cherkassy region initiated legal proceedings to expropriate the wooden St. George’s Church of 1785 in the village of Myzynivka, Cherkassy region, which was not owned by the state until now and was on the balance sheet of the St. George’s religious community of the Uman diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Myzynivka