Kiev, September 17, 2026
Maxim Ostapenko, head of the government’s Kiev Caves Lavra National Preserve. Photo: shelter.in.ua
A Ukrainian government official who heads the state agency overseeing the Kiev Caves Lavra is criticizing the country’s judicial system for sticking too closely to legal procedure in the years-long case seeking to evict the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the monastery.
Maxim Ostapenko, director general of the Kiev Caves Lavra National Preserve, addressed the topic in a recent interview with the outlet Shelter.
He noted that over three years of litigation over terminating the UOC’s lease with the Lavra, about 18 judges have recused themselves or been removed from the case.
Ostapenko said the recusals reflect a judicial system that, in his view, operates within the framework of a state governed by law. “Unfortunately, the judicial system continues to exist within the framework of a legal state,” he said. “And the problem is that this state currently finds itself in conditions of war.”
He added that lawyers and the courts continue to operate according to the law, which he said allows the case to be dragged out and postponed almost indefinitely. He blames Ukrainian society for not placing the case in the context of the current brutal war. His assumption is that since Ukraine is at war, legal cases should be decided in the context of war. However, many clergy and bishops, to the contrary, have stated that the persecution of the historical and canonical Church has divided society and worsened the outcome of the war for Ukraine. Moreover Orthodox society in Ukraine is praying fervently that the Kiev Caves not be closed, and that its churches and theological shools be returned to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The case is part of a yearslong effort by Ukrainian authorities to push Orthodoxy out of the Lavra. The UOC has already been barred from using most of the Lavra’s churches, blocked from the Caves, and the Kiev theological schools have been expelled from the monastery grounds.
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