The Kiev city council will check the legality of the location of 73 churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the territory of the capital. The decision, for which 68 deputies voted, was adopted at the plenary meeting of the IIІ session of the Kyiv City Council of the IX convocation, which was held on April 11, 2024, reports the official website of the Kyiv City Council.

“It was decided to check the legality of placement on communal land plots of churches and other structures of religious organizations that are associated with the country-aggressor. Now the list of land plots that need to be checked has 73 addresses, but in the future it will be expanded. And in case of detection of violations, the city will appeal to law enforcement agencies and the court to bring offenders to the liability provided for by the current legislation, compensation for losses incurred for all the time of illegal use of unauthorized land plots and release of these territories and structures”, – said the deputy of Kyiv City Council, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Education and Science, Youth and Sports Vadym Vasilchuk.

According to Vasilchuk, such a procedure will allow to “decolonize” religious buildings of the capital and “rid” these temples from “enemy influence”.

“This will create prerequisites for preventing agitation and propaganda activities of persons hostile to Ukraine and decolonize religious sites in the city of Kiev,” – said Vasilchuk.

We will remind, earlier we reported that on April 10, 2024 in the Supreme Court of Ukraine held a hearing on the case of expropriation in favor of the state of the temples-monuments of architecture, which are in the use of religious communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The case concerns the St. Archangel Michael Church in the city of Pereyaslav, Kyiv region, and the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Kamenets-Podolsky, Khmelnitsky region. The Supreme Court decided to return the temples to the state ownership.