Supreme Council Rejected Initiative to Transfer Whole Complex of Kyiv Cave Monastery to State Ownership

KYIV – At its session of February 16, 2010, the Supreme Council of Ukraine considered a draft resolution to preserve the complex of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, which was submitted by the Committee on Culture and Spirituality. The vote showed insufficient support of the initiative by the deputies, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom. Інститут релігійної свободи.

The resolution was supported by 199 deputies including 138 of the Motherland Faction of Yulia Tymoshenko, 40 of the Our Ukraine-National Self-defense Bloc, and 19 of the Lytvyn’s Bloc. The Party of the Regions and the Communists refused to support the resolution.

The proposal to refer the document for a repeated consideration found even less support – 182 votes. This means the resolution was rejected by the parliament and will not be considered during the current session.

The draft resolution was registered by the members of the Committee on Culture and Spirituality, Yavorivskyi, Derevlianyi, Kendzior, and others. The previous consideration of a similar initiative in June 2009 was also unsuccessfull.

The document proposed to transfer the whole complex of the Kyiv Cave Monastery to state ownership, namely to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to maintain and renovate the monument.

It was also envisaged to review the expediency of the stay of institutions and organizations whose activities are not directly connected with the fulfillment of the statutory objectives of the National Historical-Cultural Kyiv Cave Reserve (except for religious organizations), and to remove them from the territory.