Monks at the Pochaiv Lavra denied entry to the Ministry of Culture commission tasked with inventorying the property.

In Pochaiv, located in the Ternopil region, monks at the Pochaiv Lavra denied access to a commission from the Ministry of Culture, which was supposed to inventory the property. This was reported to "Ukrinform" by Olga Rutkovska, the deputy chairperson of the commission and head of the cultural institutions coordination department at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications.

According to her, on January 17, commission members arrived to conduct an inventory of the property along with a representative from the Bureau of Technical Inventory, intending to inspect the agreed-upon sites, which included the bell tower and the archbishop's residence.

"At the entrance to the bell tower, we encountered representatives of the Pochaiv Lavra, who formally declared that they would not allow access to the state property, which is a monument of national significance. They do not want the commission to carry out its inventory work," Rutkovska noted.

Commission members, citing violations of the law, called law enforcement and filed reports regarding the obstruction of their work by representatives of the Lavra.

"This is an outrageous fact, as it directly violates the legislation. The representatives of the central body for the protection of cultural heritage have the right to access cultural heritage sites. Furthermore, this involves state property. Due to the resistance faced by state representatives and the property manager, appropriate reports have been made to law enforcement. An investigative team is looking into these unlawful actions," Rutkovska emphasized.

The communications department of the National Police in the Ternopil region stated that they have recorded the appeal and are clarifying all circumstances.

The work of the inventory commission, established by the Kremenets-Pochaiv State Historical and Architectural Reserve at the request of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications, has been ongoing since December 11, 2024. Rutkovska mentioned that representatives of the Holy Assumption Pochaiv Lavra are doing everything possible to delay the inventory of this cultural heritage, while the inventory process is constantly met with resistance from the Lavra.

The inventory commission will continue its work until February 28, 2025.

We remind you that earlier Metropolitan Pavel of the UOC-MP threatened a "storming" of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. At that time, the head of the UOC monastery in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra claimed that unknown individuals would storm the building.