Kharkiv authorities strip UOC eparchy of land in Sobornyi Square
City council members unilaterally terminated the lease for land surrounding the eparchial administration building, citing plans to reconstruct Sobornyi Square.
Kharkiv City Council has terminated the lease agreement for a plot of more than three hectares that includes the UOC eparchial administration building. The decision was adopted at an extraordinary session at the initiative of Mayor Ihor Terekhov.
The site at 8/10 Universytetska Street was granted to the eparchy for use in 2008 under a lease valid until 2057. City officials have now terminated the agreement unilaterally, announcing plans for a “large-scale reconstruction” of Sobornyi Square.
According to Terekhov, the city center requires redevelopment because the green space is allegedly in an “unsatisfactory condition.” The seized land includes the square itself, a plot containing an energy facility, and the area beneath the eparchy’s administrative building.
As previously reported by the UOJ, a court stripped a UOC community of its 19th-century Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the village of Moiseivka.
