St. Sergius of Radonezh's Monastery

The men's monastery in the town of Kreminna in the Luhansk region grew out of a parish dedicated to St. Sergius of Radonezh: on 5 July 1999 Metropolitan Ioannikiy of Luhansk and Starobilsk blessed hieromonk Afanasiy (Dushenko) to organise a church community and open this parish in Kreminna^{1, 2}.

A building for the community was long sought, through petitions to the city and district authorities, and it was eventually given the empty former kindergarten of the state coal-mining enterprise Lysychanskvuhillia, where at first there was no heating, electricity or water^{1, 2}.

In 2001 a side-chapel dedicated to the Synaxis of the Optina Elders was added to the main church of St. Sergius of Radonezh, and relics of the Optina Elders were given to the community as a gift from Optina Hermitage^{1, 2}.

On 16 October 2003 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church granted the St. Sergius parish in Kreminna the status of a men's monastery^{1, 2}. The community had been led since its founding in 1999 by hieromonk, later archimandrite, Afanasiy (Dushenko)¹.

From 2011, in warm weather, festive services were sometimes held in the open air, in the monastery's courtyard¹.