Ministry of Justice to check the contract of the UOC for the lease of Lower Lavra

Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: wikipedia.org

Yevhenia Kravchuk, an MP from the Servant of the People party, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Humanitarian Policy of the Verkhovna Rada said that the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine would deal with the lease agreement for the lower part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. It is reported by Ukrinform.

“In the case of the Upper Lavra, the contract simply ended and it was not renewed... As for the Lower Lavra, an order of the Cabinet of Ministers was adopted (in 2013 – Ed.), and the lease agreement itself does not indicate the period when it expires. Even if the lease is indefinite, it should be indicated in the document, but it is not,” said Kravchuk.

The deputy noted that experts from the Ministry of Justice would be involved in the audit and analyze the procedural part in terms of “certain inconsistencies between this agreement and the current legislation, because, in fact, any agreement must have some time limits.”

She said that the government is now working on a draft law that will allow judicially to outlaw the activities of religious organizations subordinate to the aggressor country.

“There are developments from our parliamentarians, but we are waiting for the registration of the bill from the Cabinet of Ministers, which the Ministry of Justice is working on, and there is the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. This text is in its final stages. It has yet to be coordinated with various departments. I hope it will be ready in January,” Kravchuk said.

As the UOJ wrote, deputy Kravchuk stated that checks would be carried out in the lower part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and in the Pochaiv Lavra for compliance with legislation in the field of protection of architectural monuments.

Recall that from January 1, 2022, the monks and residents of the monastery were deprived of the right to worship in the Refectory and Assumption Cathedrals.

Read also

UOC accuses DESS of coercing the Church into illegal activities

The Church has revealed serious violations in the process of conducting research by the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience and called their requirements contradictory to the laws of Ukraine.