The Myltsi St. Nicholas's Monastery in the Kovel district of Volyn is the subject of case No. 903/638/26 in the Commercial Court of the Volyn Region. The Volyn Regional Military Administration asks the court to oblige the monastery to return the religious buildings of the complex. The court’s sitting in Lutsk on 24 September 2026 took place after a recess: the court’s notice in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions records that on 3 September the recess was announced until that date.
Bug.org.ua reports that the monastery’s representatives questioned the authority of the acting head of the Volyn Regional Military Administration to represent that state body and to sign documents in the case, and that the administration’s representatives replied that his authority is confirmed by the relevant documents.
According to Bug.org.ua and Volyn News, the court did not join about 200 parishioners of the monastery who had asked to be joined to the case as third parties. The administration’s representative, Bug.org.ua writes, objected: the dispute, in his words, concerns the use of state property between legal entities, not people’s right to practise their faith. The community’s lawyers, Volyn News writes, insisted that believers attend services regularly and that a refusal to join them would deprive them of the exercise of their religious rights.
Bug.org.ua and Volyn News report that the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Kovel District Military Administration were joined to the case as third parties. The court’s ruling of 3 September records that the applications to join them on the plaintiff’s side were made by the monastery (the Ministry, on 2 September) and by its representative (the Kovel administration, on 4 August).
Bug.org.ua adds that the court did not join the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Eparchy as a third party, which the defendant had insisted on. The ruling of 3 September records that on 2 September the administration of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church applied to be joined on the defendant’s side.
The next sitting, according to Bug.org.ua and Volyn News, is on 15 October.
As recorded in the court’s ruling of 3 September 2026, the administration bases its claim on the assertion that the complex of religious buildings is an object of cultural heritage and state property and that the agreement on its free use has ceased to have effect; in its response the defendant asked the court to leave the claim without consideration, to apply the limitation period and to dismiss it.
Sources: Register of Court Decisions, ruling of 3 September 2026; Register of Court Decisions, court notice of 3 September 2026; Register of Court Decisions, ruling of 4 September 2026; Bug.org.ua, 24 September 2026; Volyn News (volynnews.com), 24 September 2026.
