Kyiv City Council supported on Feb. 9 the petition demanding to take down the chapel of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate on Volodymyrska Street in the heart of Kyiv.
The chapel was allegedly illegally built in 2006 near the remains of the foundation of Desiatynna Church on the territory of Kyiv’s National Museum of Ukrainian History.
In November, activists created a petition on Kyiv City Council’s website demanding the chapel’s demolition. The petition received 10,000 signatures required for the application to be considered by city’s authorities. The author of the petition says that the chapel was built illegally on the land of cultural and historical significance.
Kyiv City Council decided to support the petition and forwarded it to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko who now has to sign it. Previously Kyiv authorities said that they didn’t give a permission to build the chapel.
The chapel got in the spotlight after the activists of nationalistic С-14, Traditions and Order and Falcon groups took down an information desk at its territory on Jan. 25. The same day police arrested architects Oleksandr Horban and Oleksii Shemotiuk for allegedly attempting to set the building on fire.
Shevchenkivsky district court on Jan. 27 ordered to arrest both for two months as pre-trial detention with Hr 2.2 million for bail each. On Feb. 5 the court released both architects without bail on personal guarantees from several members of parliament.
Horban and Shemotiuk were accused of intentional destruction or property damage.
The arrest of Horban and Shemotiuk led to the protest against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate on Feb. 3, with hundreds of people demanding to demolish the chapel.
The parishioners of the chapel gathered a prayer service to confront the protesters and to support the Moscow Patriarchate’s branch in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the director of Kyiv’s National Museum of Ukrainian History Tetyana Sosnovska told Ukrainian media that the museum will file a court case against the religious organization that initiated the illegal construction.
