Ukraine claims Pochaev Lavra is part of Russian Orthodox Church—a step towards banning the monastery

Kiev, July 23, 2026

Photo: Wikipedia Photo: Wikipedia     

Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has concluded that the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra, one of the holiest sites in all of Ukraine, remains affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, which is banned in Ukraine.

This finding is part of the state’s campaign against the Church and is aimed at the eventual seizure or closure of the monastery.

DESS announced the results of its examination yesterday, stating that it had identified signs of affiliation between the Lavra and the Russian Orthodox Church. The agency said the Lavra is a structural subdivision of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and belongs to the UOC’s Kiev Metropolia, which Ukrainian authorities have already designated as affiliated with the Russian Church.

DESS further stated that the charter of the Russian Orthodox Church provides for the head of the Pochaev Lavra to sit among the ROC’s own governing bodies.

The designation of the Kiev Metropolia as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, which DESS cited as a basis for its finding on the Lavra, itself stemmed from an earlier examination conducted in 2023. That 2023 examination relied on documents from the Russian Orthodox Church to conclude that the entire Ukrainian Orthodox Church remained part of the Moscow Patriarchate, despite the UOC’s own declarations of independence from Moscow.

In April of this year, however, a Ukrainian court annulled the 2023 examination that had formed the basis for that determination about the UOC’s status.

Nevertheless, state authorities have continued to proceed with actions against the UOC and its institutions, including the current finding against the Pochaev Lavra.

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7/23/2026

See also
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A pilgrims’s notes from January, 2011 Pochaev, the Portion of the Mother of God Pochaev, the Portion of the Mother of God
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My first encounter with the Pochaev Lavra took place back in Soviet times. At that time, I was still a young Soviet journalist, far from faith and the Church. It was as though I beheld with my own eyes this very “Holy Russia”: waves of humanity swaying between the blue and sky-blue walls adorned with the solemn faces of saints.

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