The destruction of one of the last UOC churches in Ivano-Frankivsk.
Transfiguration Church of the UOC
Address where the church was located: Ivano-Frankivsk, Chornovola Street, 6 and 6B
The Transfiguration Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk became the first church destroyed by the authorities on the territory of Ukraine since the collapse of the USSR.
For many years, the city authorities attempted to achieve the demolition of the church. Since 2016, officials conducted prolonged court battles with Orthodox Christians. The motive for the destruction of the church was intolerance toward the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
The mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, personally supervised this process.
Even the direct intervention of the UN Human Rights Committee, which called on the Ukrainian authorities to stop the discriminatory process, failed to save the church from brutal destruction.
On November 4, 2016, the Lviv Commercial Court of Appeal granted the request of the city authorities to terminate the lease agreement with the UOC community.
As reported to SPZh by the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, if the local authorities take away the church, only one church will remain in the city for four registered religious communities.
“Back in 1992, the local authorities did not want to allocate even a single piece of land for our communities to build a church,” says Father Volodymyr, Secretary of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC. “Then we declared a hunger strike that lasted 51 days. Only after that did the authorities give us an abandoned kindergarten in an аварійний (dilapidated) condition for use as a church. And now they are taking it back.”
(Source: SPZh)
On February 6, 2017, the Higher Commercial Court of Ukraine upheld the cassation appeal of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC.
The law sided with the church community.
The court upheld the decision of the Commercial Court of Ivano-Frankivsk Region dated August 2, 2016 (case No. 909/932/15), which denied the executive committee of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council the right to terminate the lease agreement for the church premises at 6 Chornovola Street.
Thus, the ruling of the Lviv Commercial Court of Appeal dated November 2, 2016, was annulled.
On August 22, 2018, the executive committee of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council announced a decision to terminate, effective December 19, 2018, the lease agreement for the premises occupied by the church.
Despite previous court decisions, authorities stated that the premises must be vacated by January 8, 2019.
On July 30, 2019, the Ivano-Frankivsk Commercial Court denied the city executive committee the right to terminate the lease agreement.
(Source: Court Decisions Registry)
On October 15, 2019, the Lviv Commercial Court of Appeal ordered the believers of the Transfiguration Church of the UOC in Ivano-Frankivsk, located at 6 and 6B Chornovola Street, to vacate the leased premises.
On November 22, 2019, the UN Human Rights Committee obligated Ukraine not to evict the UOC community from the building belonging to them in Ivano-Frankivsk.
This decision was reported by the human rights organization NGO “Public Advocacy”, which initiated the appeal on behalf of Archbishop Seraphim of the Ivano-Frankivsk and Kolomyia Diocese, who is also the head of the UOC church community serving in the Transfiguration Church premises.
The appeal was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The head of NGO “Public Advocacy,” Oleh Denysov, stated that his organization has long observed systematic violations of the rights of UOC believers and sees no adequate response from the state to stop these violations.
“For this reason, in 2019 our NGO began submitting direct appeals to international institutions, both on behalf of the NGO and the victims, to strengthen legal protection for UOC believers,” said the human rights defender. “The case of the eviction of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese and the UOC community from their building is high-profile, as state authorities took direct steps aimed at evicting believers from a building that has belonged to them since 1991.”
Denysov also reported that on November 14, 2019, enforcement proceedings were opened to evict the UOC community from its church, despite the fact that the believers had won court cases regarding the termination of the church-use agreement initiated by the state administration.
“We established that the actions of state authorities were clearly discriminatory, which is why we appealed to international institutions. As a result, the UN Human Rights Committee adopted a justified and fair decision, and now UOC believers cannot be evicted from their buildings,” he said.
It was also reported that legal documentation was prepared by the law firm “Denysov and Partners,” engaged by NGO “Public Advocacy,” which holds consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council.
On December 10, 2019, the Transfiguration Church community sent a video appeal to the President of Ukraine, Members of Parliament, and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Liudmyla Denisova, requesting respect for the rights and lawful interests of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC regarding the use of the church premises at 6 Chornovola Street.
In their appeal, the believers stated that for 28 years they have lawfully used the church premises for the conduct of worship services. The legality of the community’s actions has been repeatedly confirmed by court rulings.
“However, on August 22, 2018, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council adopted a decision to terminate the lease agreement,” the believers reported. “This decision violates the provisions set out in the 2006 lease agreement regarding the duration of use of the church premises. At present, another court proceeding is ongoing concerning the vacating of the leased premises, initiated by the executive committee of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council.”
Despite the fact that the Commercial Court of the Ivano-Frankivsk Region did not satisfy the claims of the executive committee, on November 15 of that year the Western Commercial Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the court of first instance, the community reported. In response, the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC filed a cassation appeal, which the court was scheduled to consider on December 17 of that year.
The believers reminded the authorities:
“The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms guarantees everyone the right to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law, which shall determine disputes concerning civil rights and obligations. In view of this, we ask all state authorities and local self-government bodies to ensure the observance of the rights and lawful interests of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC regarding the use of the church premises at 6 Chornovola Street in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk until a final court decision, not subject to appeal, is rendered.”
On September 10, 2020, the regional Commercial Court ordered the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC to vacate the leased non-residential premises on Chornovola Street in Ivano-Frankivsk, where the Transfiguration Church has been located for more than 30 years.
The plaintiff in the case was the Ivano-Frankivsk City Executive Committee, as the city authorities had been attempting to evict the UOC community for more than a year. The case passed through all instances of the Ukrainian judicial system and was reviewed by the UN Human Rights Committee, which blocked the decision of the Lviv Commercial Court of Appeal dated October 15, 2019, that had ordered the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese to vacate the leased premises. As a result, the case returned to Ivano-Frankivsk.
On September 11, 2020, the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC announced that it would appeal the decision of the court of first instance, which on September 10, 2020, ordered it to vacate and return the non-residential premises at Chornovola Street in Ivano-Frankivsk (the Transfiguration Church).
“Despite the fact that the lease agreement for the non-residential premises, concluded back in 2006, provides the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the UOC with the right to use the premises until the construction of a new building at the specified address begins, the court took into account the plaintiff’s arguments regarding the limited duration for which lease agreements may be concluded with the permission of the executive committee,” the diocesan press service commented. “We inform that the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church will exercise its right to appeal the decision of the court of first instance to the Western Commercial Court of Appeal.”
(Source: SPZh)
During the 45th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in Geneva from September 14 to October 7, 2020, representatives of the NGO Public Advocacy reported violations of the rights of UOC believers.
One of the cases presented by human rights defenders concerned the attempted illegal eviction of the community of the Transfiguration Church of the UOC.
In November 2020, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Court refused to satisfy the claim of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church community, which sought to overturn what it considered an illegal decision of the city council to seize the land plot of the Transfiguration Church.
The decision was made by Judge Ivanna Kovalyuk.
In particular, the court refused to cancel the decision according to which the land plot at 6 Chornovola Street was removed from the church’s land-use scheme.
On April 23, 2021, the adviser to the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk on security and law enforcement issues, former police officer Nazarii Kyshak, called for “cleansing” UOC monasteries and expelling all priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the city.
In his Facebook post, marked with the tag “death to enemies,” Kyshak pointed to the Transfiguration Church of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese, calling it a “specific religious institution” and a “monastery.”
“It is necessary to ‘cleanse’ and recheck all Moscow monasteries not only in Prykarpattia but throughout Ukraine, before a blow is struck at us from there! One of such specific religious institutions is the ROC monastery on Chornovola Street, in the very heart of Frankivsk,” wrote the adviser to Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv and member of the nationalist party VO ‘Svoboda.’
On October 13, 2021, Ivano-Frankivsk Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv announced a final victory in the case of evicting the UOC community from the Transfiguration Church of the Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese.
He called this outcome in the long-standing struggle with believers “good news ahead of the Feast of the Intercession.”
“The Supreme Court of Ukraine has finally put all the dots over the ‘i’! The Ivano-Frankivsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) must vacate the premises at 6 Chornovola Street and transfer them for permanent use to the Department of Education and Science,” he wrote, adding that a kindergarten would be opened in the church building taken from the UOC.
On October 15, 2021, Mayor’s adviser Nazarii Kyshak stated on Facebook that the eviction of the UOC community from the church was justice achieved by the authorities together with “conscious patriots,” and that there was no place for the UOC in the history that the children of Ivano-Frankivsk would study.
Kyshak quoted Bandera’s words that “there can be no common language with Muscovites” and published a historical church excursus, after which he cited a number of fabricated claims, including that the Synod of the UOC allegedly recognized Crimea as Russian, that the UOC allegedly claims God does not hear prayers in Ukrainian, that anti-Ukrainian literature is sold in the Lavras, that priests refuse to bury Ukrainian soldiers, and more.
He ended his post with the slogan “Glory to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and the hashtag “get rid of the enemy priest.”
On February 7, 2022, in Ivano-Frankivsk, by decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, bailiffs evicted the community from the Transfiguration Church of the UOC.
Local journalist and civic activist Vitalii Chernenkyi reported that representatives of the enforcement service arrived at the church grounds and began the eviction process. In front of several dozen people, bailiffs sealed the church shop. A fire truck arrived at the building for unknown reasons.
“Open the church shop so we don’t have to break the locks; we are ready to deliver all your belongings to the address,” unidentified individuals—presumably bailiffs or officials—said in a video.
Parishioners and clergy of the Transfiguration Church in Ivano-Frankivsk, who were being evicted from the leased premises on Chornovola Street despite the UN decision, were forced to gather church property.
“We removed the altar table, the sacrificial table, and the sacred vessels to prevent desecration,” parishioners told an SPZh correspondent. “The domes and crosses were left on the building. Apparently, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk will remove them.”
Only one UOC church remained in the city for three communities of faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
On February 10, 2022, the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council adopted a decision to destroy the church by dismantling it, which had been taken from the religious community of the Transfiguration of the Lord in defiance of the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee.
When journalists asked why the demolition decision was adopted so urgently—just a few days after the eviction—the Director of the Department of Education and Science, Ihor Maksymchuk, stated:
“I would not say it was quick. On the contrary, perhaps it was even late. This is already a long-standing issue—seven years in the courts. We are acting in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court.”
At the same time, Maksymchuk admitted that even the design and cost-estimate documentation for the kindergarten—which authorities had long used to conceal their main objective of demolishing the church—was not ready.
To this day, the site of the Transfiguration Church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church destroyed by the authorities remains in ruins.
КУ ст. 35 (свобода вероисповедания) · ЕСПЧ ст. 9 · Нормы ООН