The Sofia Kyivska National Reserve and Kyiv Pechersk Lavra National Reserve will not be expelled from UNESCO World Heritage List, Ukrainian Culture Ministry has said.

"All this talk about Sofia and Lavra… It's much more difficult to be expelled from the UNESCO World Heritage List, than to be added to it," Deputy Head of the Cultural Heritage and Values of the Culture Ministry of Ukraine Viktor Vechersky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.

According to him, the issue of the construction of new buildings in the buffer areas around the facilities on UNESCO's list is under control.

In turn, Vice President of the Ukrainian Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Olena Serdiuk said that administrations of the reserves take a passive position when it comes to construction of new buildings in the buffer areas.

"Today our reserves, the Lavra and Sofia, are hiding behind their walls and don't have an active position, they rather act like passive donors, and they don't have any relations to the problems that exist in their buffer areas. The reserves don't control the situation and don't intrude in it. They don't go outside. This is an unacceptable position, which contradicts all of the demands of UNESCO," the expert said.