Activists in Ternopil are collecting signatures for the termination of agreements with the UOC on the use of the Pochaev Lavra. This was reported to “Suspilne” by the head of the “Young Education” of the Ternopil region Inna Makukh.

“In general, they plan to collect 100,000 signatures in order to submit the bill for consideration to the Verkhovna Rada,” the report says.

So far, 5,000 signatures have been collected.

“We must give it back to the first owners. And there is nothing to do or prove anything there. Let them take their own and go to Vologda, Tomsk, Omsk, Chelyabinsk. Let them build churches and develop there,” said Grigory Luka, one of the signatories.

Inna Makukh said that this is the second time activists are collecting signatures against the UOC in the Pochaev Lavra.

“At first we collected in the summer. We collected 100,000 signatures. We sent them to the Verkhovna Rada. But this bill was rejected. Then we filed it again. It was sent for processing. Now we have reformatted our bill, and now it sounds like a break in the lease agreement between the Pochaev Lavra and the Moscow Patriarchate,” she said.

Makukh also added that they will not “stop until this is canceled, until this agreement between the Pochaev Lavra and the Moscow Patriarchate is terminated. As long as the Russians rule there, we will fight them.”