Ministry of Culture “opens” Lavra’s Far Caves to OCU

Participants in the opening of the Far Caves at the Lavra’s Academic Church. Photo: Berezhna’s Facebook page

Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture has opened the Far Caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to the OCU. On the morning of July 14, government officials and representatives of Dumenko’s structure held a joint event at the monastery.

Those attending included OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko, the OCU’s “Lavra abbot” Avraamiy Lotysh, and Archimandrite Bartholomew, abbot of the New Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos, together with members of the brotherhood.

Representing the government were Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy Tetiana Berezhna, First Deputy Minister of Culture Ivan Verbytskyi, and Maksym Ostapenko, director general of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.

Also present at the opening were Oleksandr Alferov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory; Mykyta Poturaiev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy; MP Mykola Kniazhytskyi; and other employees of the Ministry of Culture and the reserve.

Berezhna said the opening of the caves was the result of a partnership between the state, the OCU, and the National Reserve.

“We are restoring the tradition of Ukrainian pilgrimage and returning the Lavra to its historical Ukrainian context,” the official said.

According to Berezhna, believers can now visit both cave complexes, including the Near Caves, which were reopened earlier in February. At present, however, access to the shrine has been granted only to the OCU, while other visitors have been told they will not be allowed to enter until after August 15.

As the UOJ previously reported, on February 25, 2026, the Ministry of Culture opened the Near Caves “under controlled conditions.”

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