Lviv City Council demands demolition of unauthorized OCU chapel

OCU chapel in Lviv’s Pid Holoskom neighborhood. Photo: Leopolis.news

On August 10, 2026, it became known that Lviv City Council had filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court in a case seeking the demolition of an OCU chapel in the Pid Holoskom neighborhood, Leopolis.news reports.

The city authorities are demanding that the structure at 30 Maloholoskivska Street be demolished and that a 0.0043-hectare plot of land, which they consider to have been “occupied without authorization,” be vacated. Lviv City Council refers to the chapel itself as a construction trailer and a temporary structure. The dispute over the site has been ongoing since 2021.

Earlier, the Commercial Court of Lviv Region and the Western Commercial Court of Appeal rejected the City Council’s claims. In particular, during the proceedings, the municipality failed to prove that the land plot had been occupied without authorization. Following this, in June 2026, the city authorities filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court.

OCU representative Oleksiy Dehtiarenko claims that the plot was allocated for use by the Bekar family back in the 1960s and was later transferred to the religious community. According to him, the right to use the land was never formally revoked. Community representatives also say that they received the chapel in 2021 from the Holy Spirit religious community of the Ivano-Frankivsk Eparchy of the UAOC.

The cassation appeal in case No. 914/1810/25 is scheduled to be heard in Kyiv on August 18, 2026. OCU representatives hope to preserve the chapel and subsequently legalize the land plot, while Lviv City Council continues to insist on dismantling the structure and clearing the site.

Earlier, UOJ reported that OCU supporters were preparing a forcible seizure of a UOC church in Yakushyntsi.

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