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Ukrainian cabinet cancels 2013 decree on transfer of Lavra facilities to canonical UOC

The Lavra’s abbot, Metropolitan Pavel, said that the monastery had been transferred to the UOC by order of the Ukrainian government and parliament

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. The Ukrainian government has canceled a 2013 decree on the assignment of the facilities of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for use by the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), Ukrainian Minister of Culture Alexander Tkachenko said on Thursday.

"The government has just nullified Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers Decree No. 519 of July 11, 2013, issued under the presidency of [then-Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych, ‘On the assignment of buildings and facilities of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (monastery) for the free-of-charge use of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’," Tkachenko wrote on his Telegram channel.

On March 10, the directorate of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Historical and Cultural Preserve, a museum under the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, terminated the UOC’s open-ended lease to the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, and ordered the resident monks of the canonical church to vacate the premises by March 29.

The Lavra’s abbot, Metropolitan Pavel, said that the monastery had been transferred to the UOC by order of the Ukrainian government and parliament, and thus the museum and the Ministry of Culture could not independently make any decisions on the use of its facilities by the canonical church.

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