The press service of the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra has issued a statement in response to the demand by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine for the immediate return of the icon of Saint Job of Pochayiv to state ownership. Saint Job was the abbot of the monastery in the 16th century.

In June 2024, the Ministry conducted an inspection at the Lavra and later claimed that several icons, registered as cultural heritage and listed in an inventory from 1967, had gone missing. Following this, officials recommended the early termination of the lease agreement between the state and the monastery. However, the Lavra asserts that it has not officially received any documentation regarding the results of the inspection.

The Lavra’s statement notes that the Ministry's demand is based on a receipt issued by the Spiritual Council of the Lavra on April 16, 1991, to the director of the Pochayiv Museum of Atheism. On August 2, 2024, the Lavra requested the Ministry to provide inventory and legal documents justifying the demand, but no response has been received thus far.

The Lavra also highlighted the spread of misinformation by the media and urged the public to refrain from disseminating false or damaging reports about the monastery's clergy and parishioners.

Pochayiv Lavra, located in Ternopil Oblast, is the second most important shrine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church after the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. The monastery was founded around 1240 by monks fleeing the destruction of Kyiv by Batu Khan.

The Ukrainian authorities have been attempting for years to evict the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Pochayiv Lavra. In 2003, the Lavra was leased to the UOC until 2052. Both representatives of the schismatic Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Greek Catholic Church have expressed a desire to serve in the Lavra.