Lviv City Hall loses court case again over demolition of OCU chapel

OCU chapel in Lviv. Photo: Leopolis.news

The Western Commercial Court of Appeal upheld a ruling in favor of the OCU community, rejecting a lawsuit by the Lviv City Council seeking to dismantle a chapel in the Pid Holoskom neighborhood, Leopolis.news reports.

On May 6, 2026, the panel of judges found the city authorities’ claims unfounded and confirmed the legality of the structure’s presence on the disputed site. For five years, City Hall under Andriy Sadovyi had unsuccessfully sought the demolition of the building, which officials describe as a “kiosk” and a “trailer.” The mayor himself personally signed the lawsuit seeking to evict the religious community from the Shevchenkivskyi District.

During the proceedings, the defense uncovered evidence that documents used by the city authorities to substantiate their claims had been falsified. Oleksiy Dehtiarenko, legal adviser to the OCU’s Lviv Consistory, said officials had attached to the case file a site inspection report referring to a non-existent city master plan.

In addition, the topographic survey attached to that report was drawn up on May 29, while the document itself was dated May 28, 2024. It also emerged that the organization that carried out the measurements was not certified to perform such work, and that the signatures of officials in the documents did not match. The lawyer noted that the land plot has neither a cadastral number nor a link to a detailed territorial plan, making it impossible for the court to identify the boundaries of the property.

Dehtiarenko emphasized that in his 15 years of legal practice, this was the first time he had encountered a situation in which Lviv authorities formally demanded the demolition of a church building. Why the lawyer failed to notice how, in Lviv and the wider region, the authorities have systematically destroyed UOC communities – including by demolishing churches with excavators – remains unclear.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that in Ternopil, prosecutors are suing the OCU over failure to pay a contribution to the city budget.

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