Media reports: Kyiv authorities plan to demolish several more UOC churches
Journalists are "inspecting" UOC churches in the capital and pressuring the Kyiv City State Administration to demolish those they deem "illegally built".
The Kyiv City State Administration (KSCA) is considering the possibility of dismantling several more churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in the capital. This was stated in the KCSA's response to a journalistic inquiry on the matter by the Slidstvo.Info publication.
The publication reports that Slidstvo.Info journalists sent a request to the Kyiv City State Administration with a list of "illegally built UOC-MP churches in Kyiv" to find out if any action would be taken against them. This request came a few days after President Zelensky signed a decree banning the "Russian Church".
Allegedly, the journalists "inspected" several churches last year: the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Podil, the Church of All Saints in the Victory Park, and the Church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God located near the Artem Factory.
In response to the journalistic inquiry, the KCSA stated that employees of the KCSA Department of Land Resources also inspected the land plots on which these churches are located.
"Relevant inspection reports have been prepared and sent to the Dnipro, Podil, and Shevchenkivsky district prosecutors, as well as to the Department of Territorial Control of the city of Kyiv, part of the executive body of the Kyiv City Council (Kyiv City State Administration), for measures to be taken within their authority, specifically regarding the dismantling of illegally placed religious structures," the city administration responded to the media.
As the UOJ previously reported, the Ministry of Culture appealed to UNESCO regarding the demolition of a church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in Crimea.
