DESS again seeks to freeze accounts and property of UOC Kyiv Metropolia

V. Yelensky. Photo: DESS press service

On November 5, 2025, the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against the refusal to apply interim measures in the case concerning the termination of the Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

As previously reported, on October 22, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal denied the agency’s request for such measures. The DESS had sought to prohibit registrars and notaries from performing any registration actions involving the property of the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC, as well as to block any expenditure operations from its bank accounts.

Notably, according to the lawsuit, the DESS asks the court to prohibit local authorities from conducting any transactions involving the Metropolia’s property in both Kyiv and Sevastopol:

“To prohibit executive bodies of village, settlement, and city councils, as well as the Kyiv and Sevastopol city, district, and district-in-city state administrations, state registrars, notaries, etc., from performing any registration actions in the State Register of Property Rights, the Register of Ownership Rights to Real Estate, the State Mortgage Register, or the Unified Register of Prohibitions on Alienation of Real Estate concerning property owned by the religious organization ‘Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.’”

According to information published on the official website of the DESS, the appeal in case No. 855/11/25 has been accepted for consideration and scheduled for a hearing in November 2025.

Recall that on August 29, the DESS filed a lawsuit seeking to terminate the activities of the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC. In its claim, the agency requests that the court liquidate the religious organization and transfer its property, funds, and other assets to state ownership. The next hearing on the main case is scheduled for December 11, 2025.

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