On February 2, 2024 in Rivne regional Council held a meeting of the Council of communities, which considered the issue of banning the UOC and the transfer of temples, monuments of architecture, into state ownership. About it writes First Kazatsky.

Andriy Karaush, chairman of the regional council, said that “here we are not talking about fighting the faith, it is not about taking someone by the beard, taking him out of the church and locking it up. The issue concerns all denominations that use monuments”.

Clergyman of Rivne diocese of the UOC Archpriest Victor Zemlyanoy, commenting on this event, said: “Deputies of Rivne Regional Council – new communists? Or forgotten old pioneers, Komsomol members and communists? 90% of them were such and, in my opinion, secretly continue to fulfill the precepts of Ilyich. Or maybe not secretly”.

“The temples were built not by the state, but by the people of the Church. The Soviet regime took them away, brought them into disrepair, and the state of Ukraine gave the temples back to the Church. Everything, it would seem, the issue is closed. However, no, the spirit of communism does not give rest to Rovno officials, again they are interested in the transfer of religious buildings in state ownership”, – said the head of the legal Department of the Rivne diocese of the UOC Archpriest Vasily Nachev.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that the Rivne regional council voted in favor of an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada with a demand to pass a law that “will make it impossible for the UOC to operate in Ukraine”.