Ternopil authorities request DESS to check Pochaiv Lavra for ties to Moscow

Pochaiv Lavra. Photo: Lavra website

On July 23, 2025, deputies of the Ternopil Regional Council supported an appeal to the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) requesting an investigation into potential affiliation of UOC monasteries in Ternopil Region with structures of the Moscow Patriarchate, including the Pochaiv Lavra.

The appeal was supported by 47 deputies.

The document mentions three religious institutions: the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra, the Holy Spirit Monastery of the Ternopil Eparchy of the UOC, and the Theophany Convent of the same eparchy.

Recall that in March 2023, the OCU established an organization under the name “Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra of the Ternopil Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” appointing the same Pysyk as its “archimandrite.” The OCU has not clarified how this entity corresponds with existing legal structures or where it is to be physically located.

As previously reported by the UOJ, the head of the UGCC, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, stated that following the “demoscowization” of Pochaiv Lavra, the authorities should also take his Church into account.

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