UGCC church goes up near Kyiv kindergarten despite residents’ protests

On August 21, 2026, residents of Kyiv’s Obolon district reported that construction had begun on a UGCC church next to a kindergarten – a project local residents have opposed for several years. Photos from the construction site were posted by Yevhen Milokumov in the public Facebook group “OBOLON.”

According to the author of the post, a petition calling for construction on the site to be halted garnered more than 6,000 signatures back in 2024. Local residents say the Kyiv City State Administration issued the permit without any genuine public hearings. A city council member later promised to hold a meeting with neighborhood residents, but according to the post, instead of formal hearings, residents were offered a presentation of the project followed by a brief discussion.

The published photos show construction equipment near the kindergarten grounds, a group of men at what is believed to be the construction site, and a vehicle with no visible license plates. The author of the post also claims that some of the men were wearing balaclavas and marked an object held by one of them in one photo as a “pistol.” It is impossible to determine reliably from the photograph itself whether the object is actually a weapon.

Residents stress that they are not opposed to the construction of a church as such, but rather to the chosen location next to a kindergarten. They are demanding that the work be halted, another site be found for the church, and formal public hearings be held, with residents voting on whether construction should be allowed at the site.

Earlier, UOJ reported that the OCU cleric had permitted its faithful to attend Uniate churches.