Court of Appeal returns DESS lawsuit on liquidation of Korets Monastery
The Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal refused to consider the DESS application, citing procedural violations.
The Sixth Administrative Administrative Court of Appeal has returned to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) its lawsuit seeking to liquidate the Holy Trinity Korets Monastery in Rivne region. This is stated in the court ruling of November 24, 2025.
According to the document, on November 4 DESS filed a claim demanding that the monastery’s activities be terminated, its property transferred to the state, a liquidator appointed, and a deadline set for creditors to submit their claims.
However, the court established that the lawsuit combined demands belonging to two different areas of judicial proceedings – civil and administrative. The law prohibits the consolidation of such claims unless a specific normative act directly permits doing so.
The judges noted that DESS had been given time to clarify and correct its lawsuit, yet the agency failed to cite legal provisions that would allow the consolidated claims to be considered within a single proceeding. Moreover, it was not possible to separate the claims and continue their examination within administrative jurisdiction.
As a result, the lawsuit was returned to the plaintiff. At the same time, the court emphasized that returning the claim does not deprive the agency of the right to submit it again – provided it complies with legal requirements.
As reported earlier by the UOJ, DESS previously claimed to have discovered affiliation between the Korets Monastery and the Russian Orthodox Church. On November 6, the court declined to grant the request to freeze the monastery’s assets pending review of the case concerning the termination of its activities.
