Court resolves land case in favour of Pachaev Lavra

The Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. Photo: photo.i.ua

On November 2, 2019, the Pochaev City Council held a second vote on the transfer of three land plots with a total area of 2.4 hectares to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra for permanent use, reports the online edition “TeNews.org.ua”.

The struggle for these land plots has been going on for about 5 years; at previous sessions of the City Council, nationalists tried in every possible way to prevent the transfer of land. Under their influence, local deputies decided to postpone consideration of the land issue until the end of the war in the Donbass.

Believers of the canonical Church challenged this decision in court, which overturned the decision of the City Council on the postponement and decided to hold a new vote.

During the second vote, the deputies decided to transfer to the Pochaev Lavra one out of three plots of land for permanent use, the fate of the remaining two has not yet determined.

This decision caused resentment among nationalists, because "such allocation will be called privatization, although non-transferable". “Svoboda” members consider this question not local but national.

“To a certain extent, we have achieved the prevention of the revenge of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC – Ed.) And this has been done thanks to the efforts of the combined nationalist forces – VO “Svoboda”, “Right Sector” and “National Corps”. Unfortunately, we were not able to uphold one of the plots,” said Vasily Chashka, a deputy of the Ternopol Regional Council from VO "Svoboda". “Therefore, we will expect adequate logical explanations from the highest representatives of some political parties, whose deputies supported the allocation of land to the church of the aggressor country. <...> Actually, the nationalists defended this issue from the very beginning and will fight for Ukrainian lands until the very end."

Representatives of the "National Corps" called their "holy duty" opposition to the transfer of these lands to the Lavra.

The “TeNews.org.ua” journalist, in turn, “warned” local deputies about the “danger” – they say, if the land becomes the private property of the Pochaev Lavra, then pro-Russian elements will be “hidden” in this “closed territory”, separatist literature will be printed and stored ". The transfer of land to the Lavra in the publication is perceived as "the transfer of land to the Moscow rulers".

We recall that in 2017, during one of the sessions of the City Council, deputies from the VO “Svoboda” party threatened the deputies with reprisals for the allocation of land to the Pochaev Lavra. The deputy of the Ternopol Regional Council from VO “Svoboda” Vasily Gabor began to threaten the deputies that in case of the positive resolution of the question, they would not be allowed to “either live or sleep”, and a list of the names of deputies who voted “for” would be given to “all patriotic organizations”. He then tore up the ballots and disrupted the session. Then the Pochaev City Council turned to the police, which opened criminal proceedings.

Read also