In the Ternopil region, a court returned the Pokrovsk Church—which had been illegally registered under the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate—to the state

In the Ternopil region, the Commercial Court granted the prosecutor’s office’s claim and ordered the return of the Pokrovskaya Church in the village of Staryi Pochaiv to state ownership. The church is an architectural monument of national significance.

Law enforcement authorities determined that the church had been illegally registered as private property of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).

During the investigation, it was determined that in 2018, the state registrar of one of the village councils in the Kremenets District illegally registered private ownership rights to the 17th-century Church of the Intercession.

As a result, the Ternopil Diocese of the UOC-MP acquired a complex of buildings, including the church itself, as private property.

The Kremenets District Prosecutor’s Office prepared and filed a corresponding lawsuit with the Commercial Court. The court overturned the state registrar’s unlawful decision and ordered the property to be returned to state ownership.

The Church of the Intercession, or the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, was built in 1643 in the village of Staryi Pochaiv.

It is a wooden church built on a stone foundation without the use of a single iron nail. The church is the work of masters of the Volyn school of wooden architecture.

The Church of the Intercession has the status of an architectural monument of national significance and is an important historical and architectural landmark of the Ternopil region.