DESS gives Pochaiv Lavra 30 days to sever ties with Kyiv Metropolia of UOC

Pochaiv Lavra. Photo: open sources

The Pochaiv Lavra has received a demand from Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) to sever its ties with the Kyiv Metropolia of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within 30 days. The agency announced this in a post on its Facebook page.

Under the DESS directive, the abbot of Pochaiv Lavra and the monastery’s Spiritual Council “must submit a decision on Pochaiv Lavra’s withdrawal from the structure of the Kyiv Metropolia of the UOC” and provide confirmation that the decision has been adopted.

The agency also demanded that the abbot himself “state orally or in writing his disagreement with his appointment to the statutory governing bodies of the Russian Orthodox Church and prepare a corresponding statement terminating his powers and severing ties with the ROC.”

As the UOJ previously reported, on July 22, 2026, DESS declared the Pochaiv Lavra to be “affiliated” with the ROC. The agency based its conclusion on the fact that the Lavra is part of the Kyiv Metropolia, which the DESS had already deemed connected with Moscow.

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